Barnett's Bike Craft - #5 Winter 2013 by Richy Gonzalez

TON UP! Café-Racer Super Show

BARNETT ARNETT ’S S

Beautiful Losers

AMD’s Oddballs, Also-Rans and Others

TACTICAL TRIUMPH Loaded Gun Customs “frameless” T120 special EURO CUSTOM COOL Wheels and Waves Rally

Spirit of Munro WINTER 2013

World’s Fastest Indian Revisited

B ARNETT ’ S

CONTENTS 8 GOGGLES News & Views

all customs all the time No.5, Winter 2013

16 WAR HORSE Café with a twist, a Triumph named “Bucephalus” By Buck Manning 24 RIDES The editor’s excerpts from The Ride, a new book on the worldwide custom bike phenomenon By David Edwards 38 SUPER SCRAMBLER BMW’s R1200 Boxer gets a dirty French makeover By Chris Hunter 41 ALTERNATIVE FUEL An enduro Airhead at home in Africa or the Alps By Chris Hunter

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PHOTO BY JEPPE SORENSEN

B ARNETT ’ S

42 ROCKIN’ BOXERS BMW has always known how to get down ‘n’ dirty By David Edwards 44 WAVE RUNNER When street-tracker meets surf shop…one more time By David Edwards 52 (NOT YET) THE WORLD’S FASTEST INDIAN A tribute, and icon, and a clever marketing tool By Allan Girdler 58 SPEED SECRET Where’s the real World’s Fastest Indian? By Allan Girdler

60 WHEELS & WAVES The Southsiders MC turn on the style for a trés magnifique festival of custom motorcycles, surfing and rock-n-roll By Chris Hunter 68 RIDE TIME: MOTO GUZZI V7 RACER Stone axe in sexy lingerie By Gabe Ets-Hokin 72 GEARSET One-stop shopping for the Guzzi V7 Racer

80 TON-UP! THE SHOW Café-racers belly up to the bar in Sturgis By Paul d’Orleans 90 STREET-SEEN Pick a pair of Triumphs, a much-massaged Honda CB550 café and a Yamaha XS650 bargain-bobber that’s going, going, gone! 98 BACK IN THE DAY Born Free 5 photo op By David Edwards

74 TOOLMAKER’S TOY II Look what happens when a Harley guy is given a Yamaha engine and a thinly veiled challenge By Howard Kelly

No. 5, Winter 2013

Publisher Mark Barnett Editor-in-Chief David Edwards Eastern Editor Buck Manning Art Director Elaine Anderson Production Editor Richy Gonzalez Contributing Editors Allan Girdler Chris Hunter Howard Kelly Gabe Ets-Hokin Paul d’Orleans Advertising Director Penny Osiecki 702-566-3396 pennyfxr@yahoo.com Subscriptions/ Customer Service

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Barnett’s BikeCraft Magazine (ISSN 19342934) is published four times per year at a subscription rate of $14.99 per year. Postmaster: Send address changes to Barnett’s BikeCraft, 8272 Gateway East, El Paso, TX 79907

PRINTED IN THE USA Every effort has been made to provide readers with accurate information. Occasionally, however, errors do occur. Barnett’s BikeCraft does herby disclaim any and all liability resulting from errors for any reason. Liability for any errors made to an advertiser’s advertisements shall be limited to the amount received from the advertiser for the ads in question. No warranty is implied or given by the publisher for any information on vehicles in this publication. Barnett’s BikeCraft neither endorses or warranties the products or services of individual or corporate advertisers, nor does it vouch for the accuracy of any of the advertisements. Barnett’s BikeCraft is not responsible for returning photographs or artwork. The opinions expressed in each article represent those of the author, not necessarily those of the ownership of this magazine. @2013 Barnett’s BikeCraft Magazine

ON THE COVER Gun control: LGC uses twin aluminum plates to corral their pumped-up Triumph Bonneville, now displacing about 800cc. Photography by Michael Lichter

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photo by Barry Hathaway

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Goggles SHOP SHOWOFF Nothing boring about Rock Bottom’s prize-winning board-tracker

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s calling cards for your new shop,

you can’t get much better than two class wins at a big custom-bike show. Builder Ron Baldonado turned heads when his Pan-Shovel Harley won Best Bobber at the 2011 LA Calendar Motorcycle Show. Now doing business as Rock Bottom Motorcycle Co. out of Thousand Oaks, California (805-701-5290), Baldonado just took home Best Classic American hardware at the 22nd iteration of the LA Calendar Show, back in its traditional location in Long Beach in the shadow of the Queen Mary ocean liner. Baldonado’s beauty may look like an authentic 1920s board-track racer, but in fact its parts are from many different eras, and as long as no persnickety DMV inspectors are in the vicinity it might just pass for street-legal. That’s an old carbide-burning coal miner’s lantern up front, its guts repur-

posed to run a 100-watt halogen bulb. Look hard and you’ll see a tiny taillight behind the clutch, made from the clear bubble atop a 1950s coffee percolator with a red LED bulb jammed inside. There’s even a rear propstand so the operator doesn’t have to look for a convenient tree or brick wall to lean the bike against, and the magneto has a keyed lock so miscreants can’t fire up and make off with the parked bike – though the suicide foot clutch and hand shifter by themselves do a pretty good job of theft deterrence. Frame is from the 1930s, a Harley-Davidson VL, while the girder fork is British from the same timeframe. Slotted into the engine bay is a 1946 Harley UL flathead, tuned and tweaked and punched to 80 cubic inches, its cases bead-blasted to a nice satin finish. Our aforementioned DMV official will also have to be stone-deaf as the flattie runs a

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Goggles set of headers shorter than your teenager’s attention span. To bring all that power to a stop, Baldonado relies on a lone Harley JD band brake at the rear (and probably a lucky St. Christopher’s medal). For seating accommodations, he went back in time, all the way to the 1800s. What looks like an abbreviated tractor saddle is actually the cast-iron seat from a blacksmith’s shop – it sat in front of the smithy’s sharpening stone. “It had the right shape and was already riddled with holes so we covered it with leather,” Ron says. More crosspurposing is evident at the frame’s headstock, decorated with a 1920s Mead Cycles badge from the nowdefunct Chicago bicycle-makers. nWe might look a

little happier, Ron, had our bike just won its class at the LA Calendar Show, which besides the trophy brings the winning builder a photo shoot with leggy lingerie models for the next Fast Dates calendar. Just sayin’…

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& views

Likewise the handgrips are turn-ofthe-century wooden bicycle items. Baldonado’s main business is a radiator shop, so the man knows his brass and it was a natural to go to that material for the combination gas/oil tank, its twin fillers marked “White Lightning” and “Black Gold” so nobody gets confused come refueling time. With a 2-for-2 winning history at the Calendar Show, Baldonado has a lot to live up to. He’s already at work on his follow-up bike, a 1937 Harley flathead, but is slyly short on any further details. See the end result next year at the Queen Mary, no doubt near the top of the judges’ tally sheets. –David Edwards

REARSETS

CLIP-ONS

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NEED HARD TO FIND SPROCKETS? WE’VE GOT THEM.

PHOTOS BY JIM GIANATSIS/ FASTDATES.COM

PISTONS AND PISTON RINGS FROM WOSSNER.

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JL EXHAUSTS BY JIM LOMAS TO FIT A RANGE OF BIKES!

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Goggles

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views

BEAUTIFUL LOSERS At the AMD World Championships, even the also-rans deserve a second look

ever mind what new-age educators have to say or how well-meaning your daughter’s youth-league soccer coach may be, in life there are winners and there are losers – and we can’t all be winners. Not fair, but get used to it. Bike-show entrants know this only too well. Only one machine rolls off with the big Best of Show trophy. Everybody else is…well, what was it the great Southern philosopher Dale Earnhardt said about second place being first loser? We see this in action at the AMD World Championships of Custom Bike Building, the annual clash of bobber/chopper/café builders, this year celebrating its 10th anniversary, held at the Big Bike Expo in Essen, Germany. As soon as class winners are announced, AMD does a good job of pushing out info and photos of the chosen few. It takes a week or more for details of the also-rans to reach editors and webmasters, by which time it’s yesterday’s news, so sorry. Here’s to the field-fillers, then, 13 of the hard-luck entrants who didn’t make it to the AMD winner’s podium at the end of the day. Sorry, guys, no trophies… –David Edwards

Shif happens This Ducati GT1000 called “Shifter” is from Yuri Shif Customs in the former Soviet republic of Belarus, of all places. Shif popped onto radar screens three years ago with his sick laydown Bonneville-inspired “The Machine,” on which he daisy-chained two ancient BMW motors together and topped the assemblage with a supercharger. As our friends at the Pipeburn website said at the time, “…it’s the best thing to come out of Belarus, ummm, since ever.” Yuri’s Shifter Duc does a pretty good job of upholding national honor, especially if you’re fond of candy canes, and did notch a fine second place in the Street Performance class. Apparently Shif figured that if a steel trellis arrangement was good enough for the Ducati’s main frame, then the swingarm and front suspension should match. Interesting, and if the bike gig doesn’t pan out, there’s always bridge building to fall back on…

Das Bobber Oh dear, this will never pass muster at the next meeting of your local BMW Preservation Society & Metal Polishing Club. What, pray tell, has Dirk Oehlerking of Kingston Customs in Germany done to a poor unsuspecting 1975 R75/6, turn it into some kind of Beemer bobber?! Natürlich, mein freund – and a damn good effort, too, though the AMD judges may want to get their eyeglass prescriptions double-checked, as they rated eight bikes better in the Retro Modified class.

Mmmm…motorboatin’ That sly smile on Rene van Tuil’s face hides a demented human being. How else to describe someone who starts with a 600cc Arona marine diesel, fashions a driveline using the shaft from an old garden tractor and Saab universal joints, then circulates cooling water through the radiator via the pump from a commercialgrade espresso machine? See, some real sicko stuff here. Homemade frame and forks, of course, ’cause nobody else would touch this. When he’s not going all Steampunk on us, Rene runs Revatu Customs in the Netherlands.

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AMD PHOTOS

Eel of a good time There’s nothing overly slick about the “Slippery Eel,” done by PGA Customs out of Sweden. In fact, it was designed to look it’s been ridden hard and put away wet – over the course of, oh, about a half-century! That’s a stout Delcron Shovelhead replica hiding in plain sight beneath the patina, sporting split rocker boxes and running twice the carburetion it really needs. PGA fabricated the frame, forks, handlebars, exhaust pipes, oil tank, seat…in other words, just about everything else. Apparently parts from an old Pontiac were repurposed into the girder fork. Cooler yet is the alloy beehive oil-filter housing – need one of those, please.

You’re getting warmer Oh, yes, want one for my next ride down Ortega Hwy...or up Pikes Peak! “Ultra Moto” did not overly impress the judges at the AMD competition, though, finishing 10th in the Street Performance class. It’s from Warm Up, a German Kawasaki/ Triumph dealership that has an attached custom shop. Started life as a 2000-model Kawasaki Z1000 standard, not that you’ll find much of it left. Bonus points? Look closely at the gas tank and you can just make out an airbrushed image of Eddie Lawson on his #21 K’waker Superbike from the early 1980s.

How Swede it is Okay, who’s spiking the aquavit over there in Sweden? To arrive at “Madame Guzzi,” Adam Nestor of Adam’s Custom Shop started with a 1979 Moto Guzzi 1000 sideways Vee, hung two honking big SU automotive carbs on it, then commenced to some serious fabricating. I’m seeing Marchocchi forks and a Benelli front brake, but all else looks to be scratch-built, resulting in a minimalist Mandello del Lario meets board-tracker kind of vibe. Cool beans…if maybe not my first choice for a wet weather ride.

Rat-a-tat-tatty Finishing out of the running in AMD’s dreaded “Also Competed” tally was this 1987 Suzuki DR600 (it’s under there somewhere, trust me) as re-interpreted by the fun-loving crew at El Garaje Rata in Spain. Gas tank is from a 1956 Derbi, done up in metalflake that would do a bass boat proud; swingarm from a Yamaha 250; front suspension from someone’s overactive imagination. “All parts handcrafted without any use of CNC,” they proudly proclaim, as if we didn’t already know – and, no, they probably don’t give a rata’s patootie what you think about it…

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Goggles

news

& views Boxer on the down-low Here’s what happens when you decide to re-do a ratbike. DBBP-Design’s Mark van der Kwaak (a.k.a. “Duckman,” shown here on left with build partner Aad Heemskerk) had a rough-n-ready BMW chopper powered by a 1976 R90S engine that had literally been drug out of a Dutch canal, complete with pond scum, housed in a stretched 1951 plunger frame. After a few years it was time for a tidy-up and…well, “Things went a bit farther than planned,” Mark says. And how! That’s a Harley 45 springer fork, a heavily reworked Super Glide gas tank, and some hot-rod somewhere is missing its twin Stromberg 97s with brass intakes. A few pieces of the ’51 frame remain, but most of it was sacrificed during the chop job – any lower and it’d be positively subterranean.

Sportster noir Alain Chomier isn’t in the business of building bikes, but after the Frenchman created “Moka Race,” maybe he should consider a career change. Base bike is a 2003 883 Evo Sporty, all hunkered down, running a 1975 rear drum brake, and with – by his count – more than 150 homemade pieces, some plated in 18k gold, some in brass. Simple and tidy, no? Only good enough for a seventh in the Modified H-D division, said the AMD judges, picky bastards.

Duck a la Irish Don Cronin ain’t complaining about “Ducafé” finishing fifth in the Retro Mod class. After all, his Freestyle-class “Rondine” Moto Guzzi knocked down AMD’s Best of Show hardware! This one started out as a 1983 Ducati Pantah 600, though only the engine, headstock and top frame rails remain – that’s a decidedly un-retro Aprilia RSV1000 inverted fork leading the way. All bodywork is handformed aluminum done at Cronin’s shop, Medaza Cycles in County Cork, Ireland. Like all good builders, Don knows how to scrounge too; those are rebuilt 1970s Marzocchi shocks holding up the back end, the Harley V-Rod disc wheels were an eBay score and the saddle was upholstered using remnants from an old leather jacket.

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Another Dutch treat Okay, this got 24th place in the Freestyle class? Really?! What we’ve got here is a tricolore lawn dart with a Moto Guzzi V50 motor attached to its underside. “Opal” is the handiwork of cooly-named Arno Overweel, main man at RNO Cycles in the Netherlands, who stretched and monoshock’d the chassis, added a birdcage-looking swingarm and hopped-up the 1982-vintage motor. It’s been converted to kick-only, of course, because you wouldn’t want a nasty big battery mucking up the aesthetics. Not sure what the judges were smoking, but I’m thinkin’ best Guzzi custom ever.

SURF PATROL

Adventures in photography

I White Lightning Spl. Either Carlos Stenson has found the most creative use for a onelung 1923 boat motor, or the Swede has come up with the world’s most easily transportable moonshine still and will soon be inducted into the Redneck Hall of Fame. I’m no marine engineer, but all that brass/copper paraphernalia on top appears to be a tower radiator and expansion tank, and instead of a prop the engine now turns a BSA B33 gearbox. Stenson says that 98.5% of “Moonshine Trickster” was handmade “with many bad words” filling the air. Well done, Carlos, but I’m not volunteering to hand-crank that thing, and who did your seat, the Marquis de Sade?

Back from the dead Let’s hear it for restraint, so often missing in showbikes. Swiss builder Danny Schneider runs HardNine Choppers, but he kept most of his tools in the box for this 1931 Indian 101 Scout purchased from old Wall of Death rider Hans Mack. “Out of respect for Hans and the massive history this bike has, I kept all the original parts,” he says. Work centered on rebuilding the ancient V-twin motor, fitting a new wiring loom, replumbing the oil/gas lines, polishing up the nickel plating and laying on a suitably retro paint job with script lettering done by famed Japanese pinstripe artist Mr. G. No doubt, Herr Mack approves.

don’t mind working hard to get a good photo, but I draw the line at being handcuffed and frisked. So we’re out shooting Mule’s Web Surfer 2 for this issue (see “Wave Runner,” page 44), looking for something “beachy” to tie into the bike’s theme. First location on the sand in Belmont Shores, just south of Long Beach, wasn’t working – bad light and a patrol cop giving us stink-eye. Sometimes the police can be sticklers for permits, insurance waivers, etc. when it comes to photo shoots on city property. Builder Richard Pollock and I pack up and head a few miles north to San Pedro (pronounced “Peedro,” for reasons unknown and unclear), a gritty, working-class harbor town. Scouting for a suitable location, we find an unlocked chain-link gate that leads to a dockside warehouse. Open shade, interesting background, lots of space to back off with a big lens, there’s even an old Navy freighter tied up in the distance, perfect! We unload and start shooting. After a few minutes, though, it’s clear we’re being watched. A helicopter passes overhead, wheels around and makes a lower, slower fly-by. Not soon after, the Coast Guard arrives in a hunkered-down white-and-orange SUV no doubt bristling with ordinance. In America’s new post-9/11 reality, security at any transportation hub is on high alert, and the sight of two guys and a vehicle where they aren’t supposed to be brings quick investigation. How ugly was this going to get? Not having a photo permit is one thing, trespassing on federal property quite another. All was cool. The two Coasties – while politely informing us that we were indeed off-limits – turned out to be riders. One had a Yamaha R1, the other a Honda CBR. Convinced we weren’t plotting anything nefarious, their non-official attention turned toward the Harley street-tracker, which we were now dutifully tying down in the back of Richard’s truck. Harbor safe, arrests averted, thank you, guys. Probably helped that both Richard and I are old enough to be their dads… –David Edwards

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WAR HORSE

IRST THINGS FIRST, FOR THOSE OF US ABSENT FROM CLASS THE DAY

Macedonian history was covered, Bucephalus was Alexander the Great’s battle horse, a near-mythical beast, massive and black, thought untamable until it met the 13-year-old future king. So distraught was Alexander many years later when the

Café with a twist, a Triumph named “Bucephalus” By Buck Manning

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PHOTOS BY MICHAEL LICHTER

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WAR HORSE horse died from injuries suffered on the battlefield that he buried the beloved animal nearby and renamed the surrounding town Bucephala in his memory. For Kevin Dunworth, owner of Loaded Gun Customs in Selbyville, Delaware, the tale of Alexander the Great’s legendary horse was both an inspiration and provided a namesake for the Triumph-powered prototype of a café-racer he’s hoping to take to limited-series production. No small irony that the unconventionally framed bike might be deemed unrideable, much like Bucephalus supposedly was, when people get a gander at the frame tubes – or rather lack thereof! The concept of a twin-plate monocoque frame came about for reasons that most builders would probably rather not admit to, but in Kevin’s case his down-to-earth honesty and great sense of humor won out. “I’ve always been obsessed with frame building and, honestly, I’m not the best welder,” he admits. “I could’ve copied a Seeley frame, a Manx Norton frame, maybe even the new Hyde Harrier frame, but that’s been done. Where’s the ‘Wow’ factor?” But a frame consisting of two sheets of aluminum cut out to form a glorified C-clamp around the engine, now that’s something you don’t see every day. “I’m not the first one to do a bolt-together monocoque frame,” downplays Dunworth, “but it allowed us to use materials I was familiar with and learn different ways of using them.”

riginally Kevin wanted to go non-metal and use carbon-fiber panels for the frame, but realized that was maybe a step too far for now. “I didn’t think anybody would want to test ride a carbon-fiber prototype, so we opted for aluminum, using 7005 instead of the usual 6061,” Kevin says. In case you’re not familiar with 7005 aluminum, it’s considered by many, including Dunworth, to be a slightly

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stronger and somewhat easier alloy to weld and work than 6061, although I’m sure there are those who disagree. Kevin is neither an artist nor a draftsman, so when it came time to put his ideas on paper he resorted to a tried-and-true way of illustrating known to inventors worldwide. “I literally drew this bike on a bar napkin,” he says. Yep, a tavern, a few drinks, a napkin and probably a Keno pencil were involved, not unlike Leonardo’s little sketches of helicopters and parachutes. “The wheelbase is around 55 inches with a kinda racy 24.5-degree rake. I used some references from a 250GP bike and a lot of Buell and Ducati frame dimensions,” explains Kevin. Where it gets tricky (and potentially tragic) was the next step of making frame templates out of plywood. “I don’t know if you heard about the fire that the University of Delaware had about two years ago in their art department, but it kinda made national news. Umm, it turns out you can’t cut quarterinch plywood with a laser cutter. I think you can read between the lines and figure out how we know that…,” Kevin says, laughing. “We did get them laser cut, but we’ll probably never be able to do that again.” With the plywood templates done and thankfully the U of D still standing, Kevin had to get the dimensions loaded into a computer so the aluminum could be cut on a waterjet machine. Computer geekery is another skill unknown to Kevin, but luckily not to friend and tattoo artist Matthew Amey, who turned those wooden plates into 1’s and 0’s. Program ready, the cutting

Kevin Dunworth’s welder didn’t get much use in building Bucephalus. Headstock was carved from aluminum billet then bolted into place between the frame’s C-shaped side plates. Space between the plates left just enough room for tidy installation of a vertical oil-cooler. bikecraft WiNter 2013

WAR HORSE began and quick as that, Dunworth has two quarter-inch-thick aluminum plates ready to bolt together, right? Er, no. “I built the plates around a 1968 650 engine, not the ’67 Bonneville engine currently in place,” he laments. “I blew the ’68 motor, and turns out the replacement ’67 was a short-stroke motor so the back height was about ¾-inch lower. In three weeks I had to remake everything to fit that motor.”

ake 2 went smoother. A head tube machined out of a solid block of 6061 was bolted into place, then beefy inchand-a-half-diameter cross stabilizers were socked down, making for a strong, skinny box of a frame. The swingarm is made out of 4130 chromoly with Race Tech’s fully adjustable GS-3 monoshock to keep things in check. Up front a Buell X1 fork with Race Tech internals joins in on the fun when things get bumpy. Rolling stock consists of a 17-inch Buell X1 tri-spoke wheel up front and a mirror-image Brembo wheel aft, covered in zippy-handling 110 front/150 rear Pirelli rubber. If things get a little out of hand, pulling in the reins on Bucephalus is as easy as yanking a single finger on the dual Beringer front brakes, along with a dab at the rear Brembo/Beringer setup, to call a quick halt to the proceedings. I couldn’t help noting there was no kickstand. “Yeah, that’s something I’m just now figured out,” says Kevin a little sheepishly. “I’m using a Ducati-style kickstand that mounts between the pipes and the engine. It’s hilarious, but the hardest parts to make are foot controls and kickstands!” The 1967 Bonnie 650 engine got a reworking top to bottom. “It’s around 800cc with a billet cam and a lot of the things that Triumph drag race legend Sonny Routt was doing in his day, like screw-in valve guides and a ported and polished 10-bolt head conversion,” details

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Kevin. Other pieces like the short TT exhaust pipes, a set of 32mm Mikunis with K&N filter pods, a Pazon electronic ignition and a reasonable 9.5:1 compression ratio not only keep this bike running hard, but make it easy to kickstart too. Kevin also made a concerted effort to keep the traditional Brit twin vibes at bay. “Dynamically balancing the motor makes a huge difference and the carbon-fiber rear motor mounts have a vibrationdampening effect,” he says. “The LGC rearsets are mounted on those engine mounts too, and I also have the seat suspended in carbon-fiber so the only things you touch that are solid-mounted are the aluminum clip-ons. You know you’re riding a vintage twin, but it’s definitely smoother.” Speaking of seats, that carbon seat pan with quilted-diamond leather cover by Lances Tops & Auto Upholstery in Holiday, Florida, is perched on Kevin’s delicate-looking chromoly subframe. The flat-black fuel tank is not what I expected. “It’s a handmade aluminum piece by Retro Moto’s Junior Burrell, who’s a really sharp young guy from Fort Worth, Texas,” says Kevin. “For a pattern I sent him an oil-in-frame TR6 tank that I wanted for its tunnel dimensions, but told him to make a more modern version.” And the paint choice? “Everybody polishes aluminum, but we wanted to keep a raw aesthetic so when Junior finished sanding it, I told him, ‘No polishing, keep it raw.’ We painted it flat black over the intentional imperfections, which my dad said it gave it a horsehair finish. We just thought

Simple means lightweight. With all elements tied into the bolted-up frame plates, Bucephalus tips the scales at a feathery 300 or so pounds. Red-anodized brake calipers, handlebar levers and rotor carriers from France’s Beringer is about as blingy as the bike gets.

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WAR HORSE “Builder Kevin Dunworth is neither an artist nor a draftsman, so he resorted to a timehonored inventor’s trick. ‘I literally drew this bike on a bar napkin,’ he says.”

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it looked cool.” As you can tell, Bucephalus is obviously not about the bling – unless, like Kevin, you consider raw and mechanically innovative design integrated with vintage parts to be the true bling. This bike has not been ridden in anger yet as it’s still on the show circuit, but Kevin promises it will hit the asphalt as soon as it gets back to his shop. In the meantime, he’s preparing to build production bike no. 001 with a Triumph Trident triple, aimed squarely at setting a Bonneville land-speed

record. The plan is to build seven more with a limited list of options like anodized frames, paint colors, headlights and motor tune, plus there’ll be a street-tracker version available. Just guessing here, but I’m predicting one more significant option – and knowing Kevin’s initial interest in carbon-fiber, I think you know what it is too. If 300 pounds ready to rip, a stout vintage Triumph twin, great brakes, nimble handling and a unique frame design interest you, be sure to check out LGC’s website at www.loaded guncustoms.com for more info.

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RIDES

The editor’s excerpts from The Ride, a new book on the worldwide custombike phenomenon

By David Edwards

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DANISH BOBBER A custom four-cylinder Nimbus like no other

o yourself a favor and don’t get the

Danes started about four-cylinder motorcycles, and especially do not make the mistake of saying 1969’s Honda CB750 was the world’s first inline-four. For the record, the engine type was not invented in Denmark – that honor goes to Belgium’s FN in 1905 – but the Danes weren’t far behind with their 1918 Nimbus. Parent company Fisker & Nielson made electric vacuum cleaners, of all things, before adding motorcycles to the product mix. Produced off and on until 1959, the

PHOTOS BY JEPPE SORENSEN

Nimbus was never known for speed, but its steadfast, reliable nature found favor with Denmark’s army, police and post office – in fact, the last Nimbus to deliver mail wasn’t retired until 1972! Of the 12,000 or so Nimbuses made, some 8000 still exist, with almost half that number registered and running within the borders of Denmark. None, though, are as cool as Kim Scholer’s 1952 Model C. Scholer is a bit of Nimbus nutter. He’s owned them for decades, is active in the owners’ club and has toured America,

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RIDES

“Nimbus owner-

ship seems to lack that crucial element of masochism so dear to many oldbike enthusiasts.

”

Spain, Japan and the Atlas Mountains in North Africa on various examples. As you might guess, he cites reliability and ease of maintenance as two of the brand’s strong points. “It’s a bike that was designed with function more than aesthetics in mind,” he says. “Very few special tools are required for all but completely dismantling a Nimbus. A screwdriver and four sizes of wrenches are all an owner needs in the tool kit. But then, it was designed by and for motorcycle riders, rather than by nonriding engineers or a design staff.”

THE RIDE: NEW CUSTOM MOTORCYCLES AND THEIR BUILDERS In the eyes of the general public, motorcycles are cool again – the new wave of gritty, noir-ish customs appeals to hipsters and dads alike. The Ride is a deluxe and weighty chronicle of this revitalized scene.

The 320-page hard-cover book is the work don’t expect to find it on the shelf at your of Berlin art house publisher Gestalten, so the local Pep Boys. production values are suitably spektakuläre. The editor is our own correspondent Chris Look for The Ride in bookstores or order Hunter, a former advertising creative director directly from the publisher Gestalten at who quit the ad industry a couple of years http://bit.ly/moto-book-usa. ago to run his motorcycle website Bike EXIF from a small farm near Matakana, rs Spanish Flye New Zealand. (“The lack of decent broadband is made up for by magnificent riding roads,” he notes wryly.) Hunter shares the writing duties with three motorcycle journalists – Paul d’Orleans of the Vintagent blog, Gary Inman, noted Brit freelancer and editor at Sideburn, a custom-bike ’zine, and your faithful scribe here at BikeCraft. The stories behind the builders and bikes are supplemented by detailed technical breakdowns to keep the most avid armchair mechanic happy. It’s a book that should appeal to anyone who has swung a leg over a bike – and designery types who fancy a bit of rough on their coffee table. Just Dreams: Cafe Racer

in southern s. economic trend mechanical bucked the and modern Triana have and Efraon en retro style Pedro García the sweet spot betwe Europe, hitting

than most countries been hit harder tremendously pain may have but it has a Peninsula Recession, by the Great that the Iberian of scene. It helps ust look at the number resilient custom culture—j motorcycle number of Spanish is steeped in cities, or the bikes in the teenagers on is Cafe grids. Spanish scene riders on MotoGP s driving the started by Pedro One of the companie sed workshop he can a Madrid-ba les as long as Racer Dreams, motorcyc He’s loved García in 2010.

Pedro García

(left) and Efraon

Triana (right)

are now that bikes laughs. “But mother,” Pedro #1 fan!” d in fear of my mother is my when nal life, my of art and petrolhea an obsession my professio been a mix wellhis turned into has always assistant to age of six. But and his interest Pedro’s life worked as an remember, dirt bike at the to wait years as the five years, he Yamaha PW he spent two bike, so he had passion. For he rode a little have his own in Spain. Then moped. years as a driver want him to buy a small known sculptors Ducati Madrid, and five a year mother didn’t before he could for But after taking build a teenager sales manager by a more grown-up car launches. until he was he wanted to during new was soon replacedYamaha RD350, and then he decided for Porsche a That moped to Australia, then around GSX-R750 a Honda NSR, out to travel s—from a Suzuki Vespa, then the n of fast sportbike Ducatis. Yes, Pedro feels bikes for a living. but a successio and several own money, my CBR600 with bikes a Honda “I bought the need for speed.

“There’s a new culture among younger riders and even those not so young. People want to be more individualistic, and one way is to own a custom vehicle.” Pedro García

CRD #14 The Challenge

Turning their attention to the vintage BMW R-series, Cafe Racer Dreams created the CRD #14, nicknamed The Challenge, a rebuild of the 1980 749 cc R75/5 boxer. Teaming up with the local BMW specialists MaxBOXER, Pedro García and his team started from the ground up, created a new rear frame, and installed a matching custom seat and lightweight fenders. The CRD #14’s sump is protected by a custom-made guard that will brush off obstacles while offroading. The suspension has been upgraded with new fork internals at the

Bike Name: CRD #14 The Challenge Make: Cafe Racer Dreams

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[↧] Donor

Manufacturer: BMW Model: R75/5 Year of Build: 1971

front and Hagon Nitro shocks at the back. And a set of Continental’s highly rated TKC 80 Twinduro Dual Sport tires have been fitted to enhance the R75’s offroad prowess considerably. Renthal “Street Fighter” bars and Tarozzi pegs improve the riding position. Several kilos have been trimmed from the stock 210 kg (463 lb) curb weight. The overhauled motor retains its stock internals— and the oft-maligned 32 mm Bing CV carbs, but comes with K&N filtration, and a custom exhaust system designed by CRD and built by new local brand GR.

[↧] Rebuild

Bike Category/Gene: Vintage scrambler Year of Rebuild: 2012 Frame Modifications: 1/2 frame Approximate Work Hours: 200 hours

Cafe Racer Dreams

Curiously, he claims the Nimbus is not the most popular two-wheeled classic in its own home country. “The rest of the Danish vintage/ antique motorcycling community doesn’t regard the Model C as a ‘real’ vintage bike, as ownership of one seems to lack the crucial element of masochism so dear to many old-bike enthusiasts,” Scholer theorizes. It’s an interesting machine, powered by a 750cc four situated northsouth in the frame, looking very much like a small car motor with an integral crankcase/cylinder block in cast iron and a deep, finned alloy oil sump. The cast-iron cylinder head is topped by an alloy housing for the single overhead camshaft driven by shaft-and-bevel gears. Exposed valve gear adds a certain Edwardian-era flair, as well as drawing fascinated bystanders at every start-up. A singleplate dry clutch – again, very automotive – transmits all 22 of the engine’s horsepower to the rear wheel via a driveshaft. The frame is an unusual strap-steel structure riveted together, its main advantage being that it is easy to repair in the field, rather than possessing any great road-holding

prowess. Nimbus, it’s claimed, was the first motorcycle company to adopt telescopic front forks back in 1934, though these used only springs to deal with bumps, hydraulic damping deemed wholly unnecessary. Scholer says early Nimbus riders begged to differ. “A common trick at the time was to bend the inner tubes a bit to get some stiction,” he explains. “A few years later some crude damping devices were tried, but it wasn’t until ’38 or ’39 that oildamped forks appeared on the Nimbus Sport and Special models. The ‘high’ forks were introduced in 1949. How much of a damping effect there actually is in either design, though, remains a matter of debate.” Transformation from solid and stately classic to hot-rod custom began with lots of doodles and a growing collection of wadded-up pages before a final design was arrived at. “I started out with an endless number of drawings, then pretty much stuck to plan, which was to ride a bobber that no one else had,” Scholer says. The Model C’s strap frame with its nestled fuel tank would remain, and the engine of course, but everything

nWell, what did ya expect, a com-

monplace 8-ball shift knob for the four-cylinder pride of Denmark?! Looking considerably different and altogether cooler than when it rolled out of the Copenhagen factory in 1952, Kim Scholer’s Model C Nim-bobber borrows parts from Harley-Davidson, Indian, MZ, VW, Suzuki and Saab. “I’m not in the habit of building what everybody else builds,” he says in an understatement for the ages.

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RIDES

nGreetings from Mount Fuji!

Fresh from the bobber build and wanting to celebrate his 50th birthday, Scholer freighted the Nimbus to Japan for a 60-day loose-ended jaunt around the island. Whatever style points were forfeited by fitting the plywood tour trunk, more than a few were gained back by the nifty 1970s peace symbol taillight, gift from a fellow Nimbussian in the U.S.

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else was fair game. The rear fender was cut in half and its supporting brace angled more upright. A proper bob-job runs without a front fender, so the Nimbus follows suit, never mind that it’s now technically in violation of Denmark’s strict vehicular laws. A vintage Harley-Davidson was robbed of its 18-inch rims, replacing the stocker’s more wispy 19-inchers. Avon sidecar tires were chosen for the their tall sidewalls and zigzag tread pattern. America came to the rescue in regards to seating accommodations with a big tractor-style saddle from an old Harley, though Scholer stayed loyal to Scandinavia by employing a Saab door hinge as the seat’s front pivot mount! As a stopgap measure just to get the bike rolling he fitted braced motocross handlebars, but ended up liking them so much they stayed. Switchgear and handgrips are from an East German MZ, while the sidestand is Suzuki. Outside assistance was called in for the exhaust system, a masterpiece in stainless-steel meant to mimic the pipes on 1930s Indian four-cylinders. The welder did a wonderful job, even if his progress was measured in years not months. The bike’s extended build time was not helped, Scholer jokes, by “the owner’s laziness and distaste of wrenching.” A more modern fourspeed gearbox took the place of the original three-speed job, adding to the bike’s rideability. Crowning touch was a new-in-the-box 1970s two-finger peace sign taillight scored by an American friend on eBay and contributed to the cause. With that, and an Indian-replica headlight with VW wiring and a halogen lens, the Nim-bobber was fully road ready. His blog entry from the bike’s shakedown run, though, shows that more work would be needed: “After three years, with all the haste and frantic urgency of a glacier, my standard Nimbus turns into a bobber-style hot-rod. I test ride it on a 2300-kilometer trip to Belgium. The engine leaks oil, it has no power and the ignition sys-

tem is all but dead, but otherwise everything works fine. The engine is torn apart, the cylinder head gets new valves and guides, and all bearings are checked for wear. Then everything goes back together and now I can ride uphill again, even with the wind blowing the wrong direction.” As a 50th birthday present to himself in 2006, Scholer had the just-finished Nimbus air-shipped to Japan for a two-month vagabond tour. Except for anxious moments in Tokyo’s notorious stop-n-go traffic when he came to rue his decision to retrofit the bike with a hand-shifter and suicide foot clutch (“What the hell was I thinking?!”), the bike proved a faithful traveling partner and a great conversation starter. “The old Danish motorcycle turned out to be perfect for this type of touring, in part because of

its inherent qualities as a motorcycle, but mainly because it opened at lot of doors for me,” Scholer says. “Vintage bike enthusiasts loved it because it was old and unusual, and the chopper and hotrod crowd really appreciated the bobber style. Whether the exposed rocker arms or the peace taillight caused the most amusement, I do not know, but reaction to the bike was very good. I lost track of how

many non-motorcyclists – hotel owners, gas station attendants, etc. – took pictures of the bike, or how often I took pictures of them sitting on it. Had I just bought myself a normal modern motorcycle over there, these people all would probably still have treated me nicely, but I’d just have been a normal tourist.” On a bobbed Nimbus, normal is simply not an option.

TRACTOR TRACKER

From Sweden, a Yamaha Thumper that’s part business, part lifestyle, all cool

ars Gustavsson is a bag man, quite literally. Self-described as an “educated farmer with a bachelor’s degree in design,” the Swede handcrafts pannier-style saddlebags for bicycles and motor-

cycles, using waxed-cotton fabric, leather straps and ancient Singer sewing machines. His custom 1984 Yamaha SR400 is a testbed for the company’s products – and his own philosophy.

nLars Gustavvson in a famil-

iar pose, contemplating yet another modification to his Yamaha SR400 custom. Location is the Farmer’ Racer workshop/garage, a cementwalled former powerpant for a glassworks. When he’s not fettling on the Yamaha, Lars produces a line of waxedcotton luggage, as seen here on the bike.

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RIDES

“Gustavvson’s

1984 Yamaha SR400 ‘bobbertracker’ is a testbed for his company’s products… and for his own philosophy of life.

”

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The firm is called Farmer’s Racer (www.farmersracer.com), named after the 98cc Husqvarnas and Monarks that Swedish farmhands play-raced on their way home after a day spent planting, harvesting or fixing equipment, and Gustavsson gets downright passionate talking about his panniers. “The bags are bench-made, crafted by one person, from cutting the pattern to the last stitch,” he says. “It is a love for old machinery, quality materials and the farmer’s lifestyle that is the driver and inspiration of Farmer’s Racer. The origin of both design and production dates back before mass production – when all things were made to last longer than the owner.” It’s easy to see how a simple, seemingly timeless design like the single-cylinder SR Yama-thumper would appeal to Gustavsson’s sensibilities. We forget nowadays when the two-stroke engine has been all but legislated out of existence, that there was a time when Yamaha was a newcomer to fourstroke technology. Yamaha’s early history and especially its racing success was with two-strokes. The XS650 twin was the company’s first four-stroke in 1968, followed by the 500cc kickstart-only single used in XT and SR models. The

SR500 proved to have amazing longevity. The classically styled single made its debut in 1978 and was sold in the U.S. through 1981, but continued in other markets until 1999 – in fact, the smaller SR400 model was sold in Japan until 2009! A cult bike even when new, the SR lives on today as the basis for bobbers, street-trackers and café-racers. At first, Gustavsson took more of a bobber/café direction for his SR400, including shortened fork travel, but the gravel roads that crisscross his native Småland countryside forced a rude rethink when an unseen pothole caused a crash. “I was happy to be able to walk and speak straight afterward,” he says, but the dinged Yamaha was rebuilt as more of bobber/street-tracker, a better allaround style for Lars’ rural riding environment. “It all starts with how to bring balance to a design,” he explains. “The difference between a bobber and a tracker is not the amount of chrome or tire choice. It comes down to the stance. Originally this bike was lowered two inches, but after my accident I decided to have full suspension up front. The roads where I like to ride are in poor condition, you can’t be sure what

kind of holes might show up in the middle of a corner.” To get the bike back in balance visually, Gustavsson fitted a swingarm that had been lengthened two inches, than bolted on a set of XT500 shocks, two inches longer than stock.“The result is a bike that is leaning slightly forward, and the back wheel is racing behind the bike – not inside the frame,” he says. “This change will not be spotted by many, but it is what I enjoy most when it comes to design and craftsmanship. Small details that add up to a whole. The inches of added distance brings even more focus to the center of the bike.” Which begs the question: Then why cover up the heart of the machine, its hard-working onelung motor, with those aluminum sidepanels? It’s a trick learned in design school, to partially hide something you really want to draw attention to. And on the SR it’s working, sometimes to the detriment of curious Swedish gents of a certain age. “I’m spending a lot of time helping old men up from their knees in parking lots,” Gustavsson laughs. The panels, mounted on stainless-

PHOTOS BY LARS GUSTAVSSON

steel rods, are quickdetach in case the 400 requires some handson attention. “As the engine is 30 years old, I need regular access to the sparkplug,” he says. How Gustavsson arrived at the fasteners that hold the panels to the frame rods is illustrative of his approach to building the whole bike. “I spent hours on the web trying to find a retro way to fix the panels to the rods,” he says. “There are a lot of nice little locks that blend in with high-tech bikes and materials, but since there in no carbon-fiber on this racer, I needed a look that was closer to tractors than dragsters. After a few hours bent over the lathe and the TIG welder, six funny looking nuts were born. A washer was welded on each mounting rod, threads were turned, leather shims were made and so on. The hours of work within this few square centimeters makes me laugh as I look back!” Stylistically, the sidepanels offset

nSR400 parts as still-life: Gustavvson is not afraid to take his Yamaha Thumper apart, has done so several times. Currently he’s running a Wiseco 10:1 piston and Mikuni 36mm flatslide carb with K&N filter. Tires of choice are retro Firestone replicas, perfect for the SR, he says, “As the engine is just strong enough to outperform the tires’ limits.”

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RIDES

nA gravel road get-off under-

scored the folly of shortened suspension to Gustavvson, who rebuilt the bike with more travel front and rear. Rideability and functionality are important to him, which explains the waterproof Farmer’s Racer soft luggage – a single bag carries snacks and drinks for four or five riding buddies, two bags means he can be on the road for a week at a time.

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the mass of the two jumbo retrostyle Firestone Deluxe Champion tires at either end of the Yamaha. Everywhere else, though, Lars went minimalistic. The rear frame loop was altered to accept a stock fender that has been bobbed to within an inch of its life. Painted matte-black, the fender is almost invisible. While he had his welder out, Gustavsson fabricated rear rails tailor-made to accept a pair of Farmer’s Racer waxed-cotton saddlebags. Hey, the SR has to earn its keep as a rolling calling card for the company. No front fender, of course. The original plastic airbox covers remain but because they now only have to shield a small K&N filter, Gustavsson could move them inboard. “They are now riding two inches further in, under the seat, showing the frame, not adding to the width of the bike,” he says. The seat is a thin squab with tuck-n-roll upholstery, though it sometimes wears a farmer-inspired accessory, a prototype cushion held in place with rubber bands and jeans buttons. “All old tractors in the neighborhood have a home-

made padded seat cushion to bring some more comfort to the farmer,” Lars explains. “Farmer’s Racer is bringing this tradition to motorcycling. The top layer will be mostly denim or corduroy cloth. Rubber is added underneath to keep the cushion in place.” Other details include a small Bates-style headlight and brassbezeled taillight, both offset to the right “farmer-style.” The gas tank, a stock SR piece, was painted a nondescript gray-green with its sides left purposefully in bare metal, all part of Gustavsson’s grand plan: “The sides of the tank are starting to rust. All this – time eating materials – is adding to the story of the bike, slowly blending in with the rest of the aesthetics. The leather details on the sidepanels, the small cloth around the speedometer, these will also become stained and worn. In a few years’ time, spectators will have a hard time guessing the age of the design. By then the bike will tell a story far longer than the age of the materials.” Built, as he says, “to race squirrels and rabbits to the highest point of a gravel road,” the Farmer’s Rac- > BikeCraft WINTER 2013

er SR400 has become an important, ongoing part of Gustavsson’s life, a work-in-progress that will never be done, which is just fine with him.“My focus during the rebuild has been to make the new design blend with the old bike – to make an old friend. My goal has not been to make anything radical, just to balance the parts, lines and stance of the bike, adding details where needed, removing things that disturb the story.” Done, done and done, Lars.

FAR-OUT THUMPER

Motor Rock builds Japan’s wildest Yamaha SR400

here are generic Yamaha SR customs, quite literally thousands of them, and then there’s this gobsmacking one-of-a-kind creation, “Clock Work,” a whimsical flight of fancy that just happens to use Yamaha’s venerable four-stroke single as a powerplant.

nFind the hidden Yamaha retro

roadster. Not much original SR400 left here – basically the engine, front brake and maybe a few frame tubes.

It was built by Motor Rock, the Nagoya shop founded in 2004 by Keita Kobayashi and Takanori Katagiri, which has grown to become one of Japan’s most prolific bike builders. Spectacular customs ranging from old Triumphs to Harley-Davidsons to Kawasakis regularly roll out of the shop,

RIDES but the Yamaha SR400 is Motor Rock’s bike of choice. They have turned them into café-racers, trackers, bobbers and brat bikes, the abbreviated semi-chopper style popular in Japan. If you’re building your own custom, Motor Rock (www.motorrock.net) will be happy to sell you something cool from its growing catalog of aftermarket parts. A classic in its own right, the Yamaha SR was nostalgic even when introduced in 1978. In an era when technology and complexity were

both on the increase, the stonesimple SR had just one cylinder, which was air-cooled and had to be kickstarted to life. As either a 400 or 500, it remained essentially unchanged until production came to halt in 2009, but the Japanese just wouldn’t hear of extinction for one of their favorite rides. In response, the next year Yamaha fitted fuel injection and brought the SR400 back to the home market. In 2013 a special 35th Anniversary model was produced, highlighting the fact that the SR is one of the longest-running, bestloved models from any motorcycle company. It’s fair to say, though, that few SR400s are as far out as Clock

“There’s not quite enough brass and copper to qualify for true Steampunk status, but that’s clearly the styling influence here. If Jules Verne penned a twowheeler it might look like this. 34

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PHOTOS BY YUTACA SATO

”

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RIDES Work, if any. Notes Japanese motojournalist Rei Fukuchi, “Basically, Motor Rock has built a full-on concept bike here, a clear and strong vision that’s as much dream as motorcycle. In fact, at first glance you hardly notice that it’s based on an SR400.” Nor is it technically a 400. Because so many SRs have been raced over the years, there’s a huge knowledge base and parts availability on tap to significantly increase the 399cc Thumper’s performance envelope. The crew at Motor Rock took advantage of this and added a 92mm stroker crank and an 89mmbore piston to bump displacement all the way up to 570cc. No reports on how much more difficult that makes the kickstarting drill! Once lit, the pumped-up engine inhales deeply through a Keihin CR carburetor and K&N air filter. A low-restriction mid-level exhaust makes a tight turn coming out of the cylinder head, dips around the kickstart lever, then shoots straight

back past the rear wheel. A ridged heat guard gives at least some protection to tender inner right thighs. Holding the hard-working motor in place is a steel-tube frame that may have started out stock in 1981 but now shows some major reconstructive surgery. Most obvious is the extended, goosenecked headstock, mounting point for the shortened, kicked-out Harley springer-style fork. Yes, that is an SR drum front brake held between the springer’s chrome-plated arms, but the balloon-like 16-inch Coker Firestone-replica tire is nothing Yamaha’s 1970s engineers ever envisioned seeing on their sporting 400 roadster. Good thing they’re all retired by now. Moving to the rear we have another meaty zigzagpattern 16-inch Coker, a Yamaha XS650 drum and a heavily braced swingarm running twin aluminumbodied shocks from Japanese suspension house Easyriders.

There’s probably not quite enough brass and copper to qualify for true Steampunk status, but that’s clearly the styling influence here. If Jules Verne penned a two-wheeler it might look like this. The eye can’t help but to be drawn to the vertically stacked oil tank mounted way out front in the cooling breeze. Nickelplated and with a series of raised ringlets, it looks like something uncovered in Ye Olde Victorian Curiosity Shoppe. Sitting atop the frame’s backbone in the gas tank’s usual place is a narrow, coffinshaped alloy sheath, main purpose of which is to move attention back to the real fuel cell, a Rubenesque bare-aluminum structure that also serves as the saddle. Must cause some humorous moments at Japanese gas stations with the typically polite attendant no doubt asking, “Fill up your seat, sir?” Everywhere you look, Motor Rock’s attention to detail

is staggering. Note the control cable routing, what little there is. An internal-action throttle has its cable just peeking out of the handlebar before diving beneath the faux fuel tank. Likewise, there are no levers on the bar, as the front brake it activated by another internal twistgrip on the left side. So, how does the rider engage and disengage the clutch, you ask? Located off the cylinder’s left side within easy grasp of the handlebar end is a multi-tasking device, a combination clutch lever and shifter. This works through a series of levers and cranks and rods that encompasses the round polished engine cover, giving a very clockworks appearance – hence the bike’s name? The conventional foot shifter has been left in place too, should the rider need to bang a quick gearchange with his boot. More details to take in: When an SR engine pumps out this much

horsepower, internal pressure builds up and top-end breathing is very important. Here twin breather tubes are secreted away inside the rear frame tubes, their ends plugged with nickel-plated vent caps that look like your great-granny’s sewing thimbles. Asymmetry is a hallmark of Japanese design, so we see Clock Work’s multifaceted nickelplated headlight secured by just one bracket on the right side. The tiny vintage taillight, also in nickel, mounts off the left side just below the seat/fuel tank. Let the eye wander about and you notice that somebody at Motor Rock likes Swiss cheese, as there are lightening holes drilled in every spare surface, an old racer’s trick. What little paint there is, a dark green, was applied to the frame, highlighted with delicate lime-green pinstripes and curious opalescent accent panels, same treatment given to the angular, midships-mounted electrical box. All in all, a very special Yamaha, unlike any other and definitely destined for the SR400 Hall of Fame.

nOil to go: Lubricant for the

hotted-up, hard-working Moto Rock SR single is carried in a vertical tank, looking much like a stack of Indian stainless-steel tiffin lunchboxes. Combination clutch lever/shifter handle is definitely not for the newbie or ham-fisted rider.

“At a weighty 320 pages, The Ride is a book that will appeal to anyone who has swung a leg over a bike – and designery types who fancy a bit of rough on their coffee table.

”

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BikeCraft WINTER 2013

SUPER SCRAMBLER BMW’s R1200 Boxer gets a dirty French makeover

France, Ludovic Lazareth is fameux for his extreme car and motorcycle customs. And we reckon this BMW R1200R, the latest vehicle to roll out of the Annecy-leVieux workshop, is his best yet. Lazareth (www.lazareth.fr) was commissioned to create a “neo-retro scrambler,” and he delivered more than a set of high pipes and knobbies. Virtually the only parts carried over from the stock 2007 roadster are the 109-hp air/oil-cooled boxer engine and the Paralever shaft-drive/swingarm setup at the rear. n

By Chris Hunter

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photos by charly rosset

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SUPER SCRAMBLER

Alternative Fuel

An enduro Airhead at home in Africa or the Alps

Vives runs Fuel Bespoke Motorcycles, and he’s not your typical Spanish custom builder. He is quietly spoken, the kind of person who could easily disappear into a crowd. He also runs “Scram Africa” – an annual group trek of 1500 miles for classic trail bikes and restomod customs, heading south to Morocco and beyond. Vives’ bike-building specialty is giving vintage BMW airheads a new lease on life with thoughtful upgrades. His vision of a BMW scrambler is very different from Lazareth’s. The machine here is based on a 1984 BMW R80ST, and was inspired by ISDT bikes – the enduro-rigged Triumphs, BSAs and Pentons of the 1960s that competed in the torturous International Six Days Trials. “Light bikes with small headlights and flat handlebars,” says Vives. “Motorcycles that were capable of

nIt’s been called the

special that saved BMW. A crazy 1970s afterhours project to create an 800cc dirtbike turned into the wildly popular GS line of adventure bikes, now well past 500,000 units in total production. Both the Lazareth R1200 and Fuel Bespoke’s retro scrambler (next page) owe a lot to that prototype GS.

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Much of the work was done by Jean-Thomas Mayer and Julien Fesquet, a pair of talented young transportation designers serving internships with Lazareth. No expense was spared on the actual build, though – if there was a budget, it certainly doesn’t show. The euros were spent on a new trellis frame, and the stock Telelever A-arm front end was ditched in favor of Yamaha YZF-R6 forks. They’ve been widened to accommodate the impossibly chunky Continental Twinduro front tire. We’re told that Lazareth’s goal was to revamp the classic BMW style with a touch of modernité and aggression. So the visual dynamic of

the R1200R has been shifted forward, helped by a truncated seat/tail unit. The powerplant is now hooked up to a racy 2-into-1 exhaust system from the Spanish company Ixil, terminating in an angular muffler sculpted from aluminum. There are moments of restraint if you look hard enough. The cockpit has been reduced to the bare minimum: Swing a leg over the wide, pleated seat and the only distractions are a simple Acewell digital speedometer and the tiniest bar-end mirrors we’ve ever seen. The Lazareth probably isn’t quite as practical as the stock R1200R, but it sure looks like fun. In a gravel pit, if not on Route 66.

arles

riding trails and woods for days.” This bike belongs to a classic trials enthusiast who lives in the Austrian Alps. He asked for aesthetic and

performance upgrades, and Vives delivered – with the help of his inhouse engineer Hilario and mechanics Isaac and Jose. The gas tank is from a Kawasaki KZ750, and alongside is a vintage Ural suicide shift. No, this isn’t for changing gear, it’s been converted to a funky choke mechanism for warming up the engine. Forks from a BMW K75 Sport were grafted on, mated to a custom axle and newly fabricated triple trees. The front brake is a 320mm disc with fourpiston Brembo caliper and Nissin master cylinder. An adjustable Wilbers shock keeps the rear end under control, which now has a more compact (and stronger) subframe profile than stock. The headlight is from a vintage Spanish trials bike, sitting ahead of a Motogadget speedometer and Tomaselli bars. The switchgear is from an old Triumph, matched to classic waffle-pattern enduro grips. As with all Fuel bikes, fit and finish is absolutely immaculate. But it’s no show pony – this is one custom you could take to Africa and back. –Chris Hunter

photos by CLAUDIO RIZZOLO

BikeCraft WINTER 2013

ROCKIN’ BOXERS BMW has always known how do get down ’n’ dirty

nspiration for the Lazareth dirt Beemer wasn’t just pulled from a hat. BMW has a long tradition in off-road competition. Shown to the left is Georg Meier, best known for his 1939 Isle of Man TT victory and Grand Prix road race wins, here gunning his enduro-prepped R68 to a quick time in the hillclimb special test at the 1952 International Six Days Trial held in Austria. It was at the 1937 ISDT in Wales that a young Meier first came to the attention of BMW’s race managers. Strictly an off-road rider, he impressed the brass with his performance in a speed test held on the Donington race circuit. Despite having no road race experience, Meier set fastest time of the day aboard his BMW 500 twin. Perhaps Meier was just the man to corral the factory’s fearsome supercharged Type R255 Kompressor, they reasoned. Good thinking, as Meier promptly won the German, Belgian, Italian and Dutch GPs on his way to the European and German championships for 1938. Not bad for a dirt guy! Next year, he starred at the prestigious Isle of Man Tourist Trophy races, setting a new lap record and becoming the first non-British rider on a non-British bike to win the Senior TT. The King’s subjects were not happy. World War II cut short Meier’s racing career. When the Germans were allowed back in international competition some years after the hostilities, an older Georg returned to his off-road roots. Age 43, he would win a gold medal at the ’53 ISDT on the same bike seen here. BMW later dominated at the grueling Paris-Dakar long-distance rally, winning three times on the trot, 1983-85, with armor-plated versions of the GS adventure bike (inset), then twice again in 1999-2000. More recently BMW owned Husqvarna, before selling the dirtbike brand earlier this year. –David Edwards

bikecraft WINTER 2013

BMW GROUP ARCHIVE PHOTOS

BikeCraft WINTER 2013

FEATURE BIKE

Wave Runner

bikecraft WINTER 2013

When street-tracker meets surf shop...one more time Words & Photos by David Edwards

rue confessions and full disclosure,

the builder of this street-tracker, Richard Pollock of Mule Motorcycles, is a good friend of mine. But thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not why weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re featuring the bike. Sitting downstairs in my garage happens to be the very machine that inspired this build, BikeCraft WINTER 2013

Wave Runner

nMule Motorcycles World

Headquarters, Poway, California: With multiple builds in progress, Richard Pollock’s garage space needs to be efficient and well-organized, which is where his aerospace background really helps. Business has picked up since taking Mule full-time in 2011. “Holy crap, it’s hard,” says Pollock of his increased workload. “I’m everything in one – CEO, financial officer, designer, parts procurement, quality control, PR, test rider, warranty department. It takes up a lot of brain space, but I love doin’ it!”

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the “Web Surfer Special,” also a Pollock creation. But that’s not why we’re featuring the bike. Close ties notwithstanding, I don’t think I’ll get much of an argument if I assert that Pollock builds some of the finest specials in the world today, mostly street-trackers plus a few café bikes and the occasional out-and-out racer. Our good friends at Motorcyclist magazine agree, in their recent Motorcycles of the Year issue naming a Mule street-tracker as runner-up in the Dreambike category. “Richard Pollock’s artfully rendered streettrackers are sublime mash-ups of classic forms and up-to-the-minute technology, all built with an attention to detail befitting an aerospace technician (Pollock’s past life). No tacky bolt-ons or garish frame paint here, just top-notch components finished in a classic color scheme, to create totally functional dreambikes,” they wrote. All true. And that is why we’re featuring this bike, his latest, called “Web Surfer 2.” Since cashing out of his 23-year career fabricating spaceships and taking Mule full-time two years ago, Pollock has quietly become

Behind the build... one of the most prolific builders of custom motorcycles in America, churning out a steady stream of jaw-droppers. During a recent visit, I counted 25 build sheets lining the converted two-car garage in suburban San Diego that serves as Mule’s factory. Customers from as far-flung as Russia and Thailand plunk down a minimum of $30,000 for a full-on Mule ’tracker. My Mule did not cost that much. In 2008 when Richard suggested we team up to build a project street-tracker for Cycle World magazine, I declined. Recession then in full swing, I just didn’t see an expensive special as right for the times. Pollock countered that we could do it on the cheap, using Craigslist and eBay Motors to acquire parts inexpensively. To drive the point home, he showed up with a 1972 Sportster rolling chassis scored at a yard sale for $100. No motor, but all we needed was the frame – and by the time the wheels, fenders, forks, brakes, etc. had been auctioned off, our first purchase would actually make us some money! Color me convinced, project on. In the end our parts bill tallied about $8000, some of that allocated to the bike’s signature component, its wooden surfboard-style tailsection. Pollock was a good semi-pro surfer in his misspent youth and had always wanted to craft a flattrack seat out of balsa. Plus it provided the bike with a name – we were surfing the ’net for parts, it had a surfboard for a seat, so Web Surfer Special was a no-brainer. Cycle World’s then-art director Elaine Anderson (now hard at work making BikeCraft look purty, I’m happy to say) even got in on the act,

Wooden Seat 101: First step, laminate balsa and redwood boards together, cut birch plywood base. Bull terrier Lilly supervises.

Twenty hours of shaping with handsaws and sanding blocks gives final form, left out in sun for two days to darken wood.

Back on bike, double-check for fit, make sure proportions are spot-on. Here it’s fine-sanded, ready for fiberglassing.

Cowabunga! The little seat lined up with its big brothers at the surfboard factory, going through the ’glassing process.

After fiberglass cures, more hand-sanding and then application of urethane clearcoat, leaving a strong, beautiful outer shell.

Final rub-out and polishing of clearcoat yields finished seat, only in need of a thin pad to prevent splinters…

Thin steel plate gives the seat solid frame-attachment points, is secured to birch plywood base with stainless screws.

Keeping the DMV happy, next comes a small steel sub-structure for attaching the tiny LED taillight and license plate.

Installed and ready to ride. Looks simple enough, right? Don’t believe it! Total time, 55-60 hours involving four people.

putting her SoCal beach chick past to good use and coming up with a take on the iconic Ricks Surfboards “double-bubble” decal as our gas tank badge. It incorporates the familiar Cycle World logo, now “classic,” as earlier this year the book’s new owners decided that whatever ails the magazine could be fixed by drop-kicking the best title design in motorcycle journalism and replacing it with a wispy, lilting typeface. CW’s founder Joe Parkhurst, an art director in his earlier life, would be spinning in his grave – had his ashes not been scattered in the waters off Catalina Island. Of course, I may be biased…

photo by Jim Gianatsis/Fastdates.com

BikeCraft WINTER 2013

Wave Runner nPollock sold his first customer

bike, a café Harley, in 1993 and has turned out about 150 more since, mostly Sportster-based street-trackers. New Triumph Bonnevilles have taken over from old Yamaha XS650s as Mule’s vertical-twin of choice. Web Surfer 2 uses lightweight C&J-replica frame, pumped-up Buell 1203cc V-twin.

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Anyway, when I left the magazine in ’09, the Web Surfer dutifully followed me home, where it’s been ever since, always ready to be thumbed into action whenever I’m not feeling up to the kickingand-cajoling routine my older iron sometimes requires. It also made an appearance in Bike EXIF’s 2012 calendar, which is where British bar and brewpub developer Rob Cameron saw it, immediately getting in touch with Pollock and commissioning Web Surfer 2. As he told me, “Your bike was the most balanced, well designed street-tracker

I’d seen, I wanted one just like it.” Only better. For one thing, the build wasn’t hemmed in by the same budget constraints as the original. Ironic, then, that an online purchase got things rolling. Some years back, Pollock had built a Buell 1200 dirttrack racer using a very nice C&Jstyle chromoly frame. Next time he saw it, the little-used racebike was on eBay, having been halfassed into a “Mule street-tracker” with tacked-on lights and other bits. Whether he bought the bike because the price was right or

“Having a timber tail was a must,” says Web Surfer 2 owner Rob Cameron. “I love the originality and craftsmanship of it.”

BikeCraft WINTER 2013

Wave Runner TECH SPECS

Name of bike: Owner: Year/Make/Model: Fabrication: Assembly: Build time: Engine: Carburetion: Exhaust: Air Cleaner: Transmission: Frame: Forks: Shocks: Front wheel: Rear wheel: Front Tire: Rear Tire: Front Brake: Rear Brake: Fuel Tank: Oil Tank: Fenders: Handlebars: Headlight: Taillight: Hand Controls: Handgrips: Foot Controls: Footpegs: Electrical: Painter: Graphics: Polishing: Chrome: Seat: Special thanks:

Web Surfer 2 Rob Cameron 2013 Mule Richard Pollock Richard Pollock 10 months 2001 Buell M-2 Cyclone Keihin Mark McDade K&N Buell Matt Bryant Buell X-1 Penske Kawasaki KZ440 XLCR Harley Maxiss Maxiss Brembo/Kosman Brembo/Mule Storz In-frame What’s that? Mule stainless-steel Sportster Britelite Buell/Brembo/ Joker Machine throttle Renthal Mule Mule/Bates rubbers Richard Pollock Dave Tovar Dennis Wells Exclusive Polishing Sorry, no chrome! Richard Pollock/Shaun Kump Mark Smith at Custom Surf & Sail for all the fiberglassing

bikecraft WINTER 2013

n Buell X-1 inverted forks lead

the way, straddling a 19-inch Morris mag lookalike front wheel that started life on a lowly Kawasaki 440 before being sent off to Kosman Specialties for widening. Black wire runs from magnetic sender to Acewell multi-function speedo/tach unit.

because he wanted to protect the brand name, Richard is too nice to say, draw your own conclusions. The frame really is a piece of work compared to the Nixon-era glorified water-pipe assemblage that underpins my bike, easily 30 pounds lighter, with the backbone serving as oil tank, and a cool-as-heck sidemounted cantilever monoshock setup. A Penske shock capably fills the space between frame mount and swingarm brace, and good luck

finding one of those at a swapmeet. Showa usd forks borrowed from a Buell X-1 match the Penske’s quality damping bump for bump. The motor is a cut above my ’93 Sporty 1200 too, a higher-performance 2001 Buell M-2 Cyclone powerplant that’s benefitted from Pollock’s tweaks. Hands-down, Rob’s bike wins the Pipe Wars, that swirling mid-level exhaust by longtime Mule collaborator Mark McDade is nuthin’ but pure sex in polished stainless-steel. Savvy readers may also notice something subtly different about the primary cover. Richard never has liked the stock downward-facing clutch cable attachment point, which forces the cable to run alongside the motor then climb the frame’s front downtube to the lever. So he bandsaws off the clutch dome and rotates it about 40 degrees clockwise before rewelding, giving the cable a more direct shot at the handlebars. It’s those kind of fine details upon fine details that set a Mule street-tracker apart from other customs. As this is being written, Web Surfer 2 is on the water, crossing the Atlantic, bound for its new home in England. Have to say I miss the thing; it was kinda nice having matching bookends. Anybody up for Web Surfer 3?

BikeCraft WINTER 2013

(NOT YET)

THE WORLD’S FASTEST INDIAN A tribute, an icon, and a clever marketing tool By Allan Girdler

bikecraft WINTER 2013

PHOTOS BY BARRY HATHAWAY

hat we have here is dedication, hard and skilled work, industrial

art and expertise, but before we get into all that, the question that must spring into every enthusiast’s mind…“Wottle She Do?”

Jeb Scolman, the builder of this tribute to the late and legendary Burt Munro, has a ready answer: “We don’t know yet.” Now we can get to the backstory. As all Indian and recent movie fans must know, Munro was a dedicated, talented and eccentric speed demon. Working on his own time and dime in remote New Zealand, he fashioned streamlined motorcycles powered by versions of a 1920 Indian Scout engine. With help from his friends, Munro brought his best bike to

the Bonneville speed trials in the 1960s. His quickest two-way average was 183.56 mph, running in the 1000cc class. What we have here is not that machine (see “Speed Secret” sidebar). No, what we have here is the “Spirit of Munro,” a tribute rather than a replica or reproduction. It’s also a showcase for the brand-new, no-parts-shared Thunder Stroke 111 V-twin, the engine powering the 2014 versions of the reborn (again) Indian Chief. The original Indian Motocycle Company

BikeCraft WINTER 2013

(NOT YET)

THE WORLD’S FASTEST INDIAN (that’s how they spelled it back then) stopped producing motorcycles in 1953. There followed a series of inept, illegal or underfinanced revivals, but in 2011 the iconic name and badge and good will were bought by Polaris, a large and thriving manufacturer already in the bike business with Victory Motorcycles. Polaris is now building and selling a completely modern version of the legendary Indian Chief, the one with fully valanced fenders and eye-candy paint. But it’s been, what, two generations since that original Chief went to the Happy Hunting Grounds? And while Munro’s exploits were 50 years ago, the movie with Sir Anthony Hopkins starring as our hero is still in circulation, not to mention Netflix and Hulu, adding up to this rolling tribute. Next, if ever there was a man equipped to accomplish a plan, it’s Jeb Scolman. The catalyst here was an imaginative and wealthy collector/ restorer named Jim Lattin. Just for fun, Lattin decided the world needed a replica of the 1928 Stutz Black Hawk Special, a beautiful wheel-spatted 200-mph landspeed car that set a new record on the clocks but then blew a tire and crashed, killing driver/designer Frank Lockhart. Scolman was raised in the wilds of Alaska, no kidding. It was 50 miles from the family farm to Fairbanks, where his mom did her shopping every few weeks. Scolman went along, but while she was in the grocery store, Jeb was curled up at the newsstand, memorizing every car and motorcycle magazine in the racks. Further, living in the woods meant he and his dad, a naturalist, had to make most of what they needed ’cause they couldn’t buy it. Nature meets nuture here, as grown-up Jeb’s work is a big leap from homemade. Scolman went to technical college, then worked for several top

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builders before going into business for himself as Jeb’s Metal and Speed in Long Beach, California. He’s been building bobbers and Bonneville cars, and has worked on aircraft modern and vintage. “I’m a metal shaper,” the 32-year-old says, ready to make anything somebody wants or needs and can pay for. So, just as Lattin recruited Scolman because of his Bonneville builds, so did Jeb’s work on the Black Hawk replica lead Polaris execs to Metal and Speed when they wanted to combine the Munro legend with their new engine. They gave him as free a hand as any project chief ever had, providing a dummy 111 engine, then standing back. The Spirit is just as long as the Munro Special; wider, of course, because the Thunder Stroke motor is almost exactly three times the displacement of the 600cc Scout. While a conventional streamliner is completely enclosed, with rider leaned way back, feet forward (pause to dig out the old On Any Sunday DVD to watch Cal Rayborn tip over time after time, on his way to a class record), the Spirit is a partial-streamliner, rider upright and astride, boots on the ground when required. Scolman knew the basic dimensions, then drew the enclosure, nose to tail, working on the thesis that what looks right is right. Some of the shape is normal streamliner and some is more like the central fuselage of a WWII P-38 fighter plane. As sort of an inside joke, Scolman says his project’s profile is “more tuna than salmon,” in case the listener remembers that the shape of the 777 BUB streamliner,

nAny machine meant to

run at Bonneville looks better with a little alkali dust clinging to its surfaces, rather than all gussied up on the show circuit. (Above) PR still from World’s Fastest Indian, with Tony Hopkins as Burt Munro, namesake and inspiration for this project. the one that’s held the world motorcycle record several times, was inspired by salmon powering upstream. Scolman and company made a frame of mild steel tubing, and a wood buck, over which they shaped the Spirit’s aluminum skin. It’s wrapped to within fractions of an inch where it counts. Running gear is standard motorcycle – that is, the Indian engine and drivetrain, with starter and battery (no lights, obviously). There are twin shocks and a swingarm in the rear, steeply raked telescopic forks in front, disc brakes at both ends, all using American BikeCraft WINTER 2013

(NOT YET)

THE WORLD’S FASTEST INDIAN parts where available. One of the few requirements Scolman had to meet involved the exhaust system. Polaris had the 111 engine ready before the rest of the redone Chief series was introduced. They toured the shows with a display engine, a runner that could be started for the crowd’s entertainment. The engineers had worked long and hard on getting the exhaust note just right. That done, they insisted that the Spirit have the same tone, albeit they would leave their decibel meter in its box. The preferred shorty dump pipes wouldn’t do, meaning Scolman had to work hard to fit the required plumbing inside the tight confines of the shell, which it does. Plus, the time between beginning design and unveiling the finished machine was short, 90 days in fact. “It was ninety 12- or 14-hours days,” he says with a semi-mock groan, adding that to get it done, you simply get it done. Oh, and the job was done 2:30 a.m. on deadline day. As soon as there was a pause between shows, the Indian guys took the Spirit to a private California dry lake so remote even NSA’s drones can’t find it. The first (and

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so far only) rider, retired racer Todd Egan, pushed the button, started the engine, pulled in the clutch lever, clicked into gear and rode onto the lakebed. This was a test, as they say on the radio. Everything worked as expected. On orders, Egan didn’t fully open ’er up, simply went fast enough to know the bike as first ridden, met expectations. Now then. Even allowing for the fact that the Internet brings out the worst in everyone, there have been

rude remarks about the Spirit. It’s an insult, boo-birds have griped, Burt Munro did it entirely on his own, while this project was backed by a billion-dollar multinational corporation. He worked for 40 years, you took 90 days. Which is true…except that when it comes to the record, the real record, the SCTA class record, there’s no way the Spirit can top the Special simply because the 111 engine is nearly twice the 1000cc class limit. Munro’s record is safe, well, unless

someone else takes a shot. A spokesman for the new Wigwam (as they called the original Indian factory) says they have no such plans. Scolman doesn’t know the Spirit’s weight, or frontal area, or coefficient of drag, and he’d guess the output of the production 111 engine as 100 horsepower, give or take, and the factory doesn’t release that specification, although surely they know. From the outside, it would be a surprise if the Indian design team doesn’t chart all this and work out on paper, anyway, how much power a tuned 111 engine can safely deliver, and how fast it could push the Spirit. In cold fact, the title of World’s Fastest Indian is pure romance. There’s no such class, no big trophy. More to today’s point, to use a souped-up 2013 1811cc engine to outperform a souped-up 1920 958cc engine would be to shoot your own legend in the halo. Better in every way to equip the Spirit of Munro to run in an actual SCTA class and take that record, something Ol’ Burt himself would surely enjoy. As Scolman says, public relations and marketing aside, “I built it to run at Bonneville.” Don’t touch that dial.

Building shocks since 1985

www.hagonshocksusa.com

BikeCraft WINTER 2013

1788 La Costa Meadows Drive Suite 101 San Marcos, CA 92078 T: 760.308.8124 Email: hagonshocks@yahoo.com

SPEED SECRET Where’s the real World’s Fastest Indian?

hen you have a watch, folk wisdom

tells us, you always know what time it is. When you have two watches, you’re never quite sure. That being so, it should come as no surprise that if you Google “Munro Special,” you will be told that a) the recordsetting bike won Best in Class at Pebble Beach and b) the record-setting bike is on display back home in New Zealand where it’s always been. How can this be? It’s just normal racing. Munro wasn’t there to make history, he was there to set records. Nor did he do it with just

the one 1920 Scout he bought new. He experimented for 40-plus years, building this version and that, blowing things up and doing it all over again. Munro had a series of engines, frames, shells and parts. Guys who were there recall that after the record run Munro left the rolling chassis and shell in California with Sammy Pierce, Indian’s godfather of the 1960s, and took the engine back to New Zealand, the plan being more work and more speed. It didn’t happen. Munro’s health declined. Pierce died, then Munro died

and the Special sat for years, until it was rescued by collectors, re-powered by a different Munro engine, and restored. There have been dogs on the Internet carping that it should have been left as parked, but David Hansen, who had the bike in his shop for years, says the decay was way beyond patina. Meanwhile, the record-setting engine went into another Munro shell, now on display at a hardware store, no kidding, in Burt’s native Invercargill. In sum, neither machine is completely authentic, both are genuine examples of the past. –Allan Girdler

nTear-jerker for real: Great scene from

the movie showed Bonneville competitors passing the hat and presenting cashstrapped Munro with a surprise contribution. Here’s the actual event in black & white, an obviously moved Burt with moneybag in hand.

PHOTO BY JACK BRADY/KELLOGG AUTO ARCHIVE

bikecraft WINTER 2013

BikeCraft WINTER 2013

The Southsiders MC turn on the style for a trĂ¨s magnifique festival of custom motorcycles, surfing and rock-n-roll By Chris Hunter Photos by Kristina Fender

bikecraft WINTER 2013

BikeCraft WINTER 2013

W n(Previous page) On a closed-off road near the local airstrip, bikes of every persuasion (and vintage cars) lined up to drag race. On left is the eventual winner, BMW Motorrad designer Sylvain Berneron aboard his heavily modified Suzuki

café-racer “Tzar.” Vincent Prat, organizer of the Wheels & Waves festival, only received mayoral permission to close the road a couple of days before the races were scheduled to start.

t is hard to overestimate the

influence of Vincent Prat on the custom motorcycle scene in Western Europe. The founder of the Southsiders MC is an accomplished bike builder and passionate surfer. He’s combined both as lead organizer of the annual Wheels & Waves show in Biarritz, seaside on France’s southwest coast near the Spanish border – easily the most glamorous destination for builders and moto fans in Europe. This year, some 300 custom and classic motorcycles gathered for a ride up into the nearby Pyrénées-Atlantique mountains, across the border and into Spain. Hundreds more bikes gathered in the car park of the iconic Biarritz Lighthouse. The local airfield was commandeered for informal drag races, and BMW Motorrad shipped in one of the most sig-

bikecraft WINTER 2013

BikeCraft WINTER 2013

W nDavid Borras, leading light of El Solitario, drags on a cigarette in a rare moment of quiet. His rise to fame in Europe has been rapid – the former commodity trader is now widely regarded as one of the most inventive custom builders around. In

the foreground is the shop’s latest build, “Petardo.” As with all Borras’ motorcycles, craftsmanship is superb but the approach is punk. “The goal is to create something different, shocking even,” says Borras.

nificant bikes in the history of motorcycling, the priceless art-deco R7 prototype from the 1930s, maybe the ultimate factory custom. For visitors – all honorary members of the Southsiders MC for the weekend – it felt like being part of the biggest bike club in the world, surrounded by likeminded souls with a common interest in cool motorcycles. Wheels & Waves is the epicenter of the “new wave” custom scene in Europe, and the big manufacturers took notice. The showground was flanked by tents housing the latest models from Moto Guzzi and Triumph, and the star of the show was BMW’s café-styled Concept 90 prototype, designed by Roland Sands with BMW’s Ola Stenegärd and Sylvain Berneron. The other big news was the first public unveiling of the latest custom from the always-interesting El Solitario shop, their Ducati “Petardo.” A 1993 Ducati 600SS juiced up with a 900 motor, it’s a deliberate reaction BikeCraft WINTER 2013

W nDimitri Coste gets a push on his BSA 441 from friends Séb Lorentz (BMW Motorrad France) and Hugo Jezegabel (Blitz Motorcycles, Paris). Coste is an accomplished flat-track racer who also designs for the footwear company Vans

and runs the OSFA (One Size Fits All) project, promoting the amateur racing lifestyle. The sense of camaraderie at Wheels & Waves was obvious. Prat commented that the Southsiders MC is not a club: “This is a friendship story,” he says.

against the trend for hiding components. Hence the tacked-on lights and the array of Stack race gauges embedded into the tank, even an exhaust gas temperature monitor. “All the ‘organs’ – like the switches, pumps, coils, cables and hoses – are on the outside,” says builder David Borras. “We wanted to embrace the veins and arteries that move the body!” The show ended with a punk rock concert overlooking the Bay of Biscay, lit by nothing more than the swiveling beam of the lighthouse. As the band hit its peak, Roland Sands ran back to the showground, fired up the BMW Concept 90 and rode it into the heaving mass of bodies dancing to the music. Then he dropped the clutch and shredded the back tire in a cloud of smoke, as the band played on. It was a spectacular end to an unforgettable weekend. BikeCraft WINTER 2013

RIDE TIME: MOTO GUZZI V7 RACER

INSTANT CAFÉ Stone Axe in Sexy Lingerie By Gabe Ets-Hokin

ome things never change. No really, they don’t change. At all. You may own a few of them – a good chef’s knife, your favorite 3/8-drive ratchet, or maybe a pair of Brogans that look great season after season. You could get new shoes, but why? Yours work just as well as when they were purchased and will never wear out, given a little preventative maintenance. One of those items could be your stone-axe-simple, fun-to-ride and reliable old Moto Guzzi V50. Back when I was riding my yellow Raleigh 10-speed to middle school, you bought it new for about $3000 and have been enjoying its 48-ish horsepower, shaft drive and light, forgiving nature ever since. Even in the era of Reagan and Big Hair, you weren’t all that impressed with the power, brakes or suspension, but you liked that bike enough to hang on to it for a long time. Maybe it’s still in your garage. Now it’s the era of Obama and Big Beards, and everything old is new again, with Hipsters opting for manufactured authenticity over

bikecraft WINTER 2013

BikeCraft WINTER 2013

RIDE TIME: MOTO GUZZI V7 RACER

finely engineered performance. Most OEMs start with a clean sheet of paper to design their “modern classics,” delivering retro look and feel with modern reliability and performance. But Moto Guzzi didn’t have to go that route – the 92-year-old company never really stopped making the V50, with variants of that motorcycle’s “small block” 90-degree V-twin appearing on models like the Breva 750 and Nevada. In 2008, the company introduced a re-engineered version it dubbed the V7, harkening back to the Carcano-designed “big block” V7 of the 1960s. The famous 1971 V7 Sport is recognizable for its dramatic Tontidesigned tube-steel frame and elegant tank. It went as good as it looked, with the motor setting land-speed records and the Sport

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being an endurance racer of some note. Guzzi celebrated that heritage – and cashed in on the newfound interest in café bikes – with the V7 Racer in 2011. It’s the same basic machine as the V7 Stone and V7 Classic; all three models got a laundry list of updates and improvements for 2013, including new single-body fuel-injection and better-flowing cylinder heads. The Racer stands out with a host of café-themed factory-installed accessories. It has a chromed gas tank, adjustable clip-on bars, adjustable rearset footpegs, a suede-n-leather solo saddle, as well as a numberplate-equipped flyscreen that would look quite at home at Goodwood circa 1965. So is the new V7 a faithful recreation of the old bike, but with modern convenience? Yes and no.

It certainly looks the part, and it looks good. The big shiny tank with its leather strap is eye-grabbing, and the motorcycle is finely detailed with aluminum covers, rich color-matched powdercoating, multi-adjustable Paoli fork and those serious-looking rearsets, cut from billet and equipped with eccentric adjusters on the toepegs. Passers-by comment on the bike, old men ask what year it is, and other motorcyclists – sportbikers and cruisers alike – gaze upon it and sigh. Even the price is retro: the base-model V7 Stone is $8390, or about $3000 adjusted for 33 years of inflation, while the V7 Racer will nick you for a little more, $9990. Functionally, the Racer is a vintage V50 that burns clean enough for modern emissions laws – no more, and no less. That’s no exaggeration. The frame and swingarm are the same as the ‘80s model, as is the basic motor design. It’s not going to win a Superbike race, but riding it – city, freeway or canyons – is a fun and involving experience. Around town, the weight is low (as is the seat height) and there’s a lot of steering lock, so it’s maneuverable and easy to manage. On highways, it’s happy enough to cruise at high(ish) speeds for long distances, without feeling stressed unless you’re really breaking the law. On twisty roads, keep the pace reasonable and you’ll have fun – the three-way adjustable Bitubo twin shocks do an admirable job controlling drive-shaft jacking, there is plenty of lean angle thanks to those pretty rearsets, and the front end is probably just stiffer springs and cartridge-fork emulators away from delivering a controlled, yet comfortable, ride. If you own something air-cooled, you’re probably familiar with the Guzzi’s problem areas – and adept at fixing them. The simple design and quality components welcome modification, a true enthusiast’s bike. It’s also very well built. The cosmetic stuff is great, and the build quality is as good as it gets for mass production, with terrific attention

to detail and nice touches everywhere you look – outstanding for this price point. And if there were ever a motorcycle I could safely predict will run happily as long as there is 91-octane gas on the planet, this is the one. The V7 is a very satisfying motorcycle to ride, and (relevant to BikeCraft readers) has the right bones for a good project. The motor is durable, flexible and understressed, the frame is easy to modify and a proven, good-handling design, and there are three decades of aftermarket support and development. If you’re going to build a scrambler, brat or bar-hopper, start with the V7 Stone, but if you want a café-racer (and I like the cut of your jib, sailor), the Racer’s shocks, rearsets, clip-ons and seat more than pay for themselves. You can sell or swap the chrome tank (if that’s not your thing) and other parts to finance the front end work, exhaust, paint and other mods that would make this your Guzzi for the next 30 years.

nNo, it’s not a table at the

Mandello del Lario swapmeet. It’s the latest iteration of Guzzi’s “short block” 744cc 90-degree air-cooled Vee, broken down to show the many changes made for 2013. It looks vintage, but 70% of the parts are new, including highcompression pistons, more compact and efficient cylinder heads, new ECU and a singlebody Weber-Marelli fuel-injection system.

BikeCraft WINTER 2013

Gearset

AD MOTO GUZZI V7 ACCESSORIES If you’re livin’ la vida monoposto, the V7 Racer singleseater already has your attention, but to really play up its inherent café coolosity you’ll want the Record Kit ($1999) available from Guzzi. This consists of a fiberglass 1960s retro-style half-fairing that embraces the M-G’s jutting cylinder heads, plus a ducktail seat cowl complete with numberplates. You’ll also no doubt pop for the slip-on Arrow mufflers ($950) for the full Giacomo Agostini Effect. Of course, even hard riders sometimes like soft passengers, so turn your V7 Racer into a TwoUpper with a dual seat kit ($350), chrome luggage rack ($396) and matching nylon tail bag ($300) for her essentials. www.motoguzzi-us.com

bikecraft WINTER 2013

BikeCraft WINTER 2013

Toolmaker’s Toy II

FEATURE BIKE

Look what happens when a Harley guy is given a Yamaha engine and a thinly veiled challenge By Howard Kelly

bikecraft WINTER 2013

photos by jack mcintyre

ush your motorcycle brain

back to the late 1990s when the custom Harley world was exploding. Crappy billet parts flooded the aftermarket and made some bad people a lot of money. But the good stuff always rises to the top and there was this little machine shop in Pennsylvania, owned by this guy, Lee Wimmer, who chipped out a name for himself with his air intakes for V-twins, creatively named Big Suckers. And his intakes really sucked – a lot of air, that is, making them an immediate choice for serious performance. Thus Wimmer Custom Cycle (www.wimmermachine.com) was born. Eventually Wimmer gathered up all his machines and left the cold Pennsylvania winters for Myrtle Beach, South Carolina – and put together some cool motorcycles for everyone to see. With his reputation as a bike builder growing, Wimmer’s friend John Chadwell gave him a 1970 Yamaha XS650 twin and said, “Here, build something cool.” You wouldn’t exactly call it a challenge so much as an invitation to be cre-

BikeCraft WINTER 2013

Toolmaker’s Toy II “When you spend all your time building Harley stuff, a new way of doing things can be fun.”

ative and step out of the expected V-twin formula. Wimmer kicked off his Yamaha project with frame shopping, during which he saw lots of ways to build a rigid Yamaha 650 chopper or a street-tracker. “Nahhh, those frames don’t do

it for me,” he thought, “I’ll just make my own – a board-track racer with a twist.” So Lee did what Lee does best and went to his shop to build things. He started with a frame made from hand-formed chromoly tubing. For his first

time making a frame for an XS650 engine, there wasn’t any undue drama; only the unique rear-shock design needed some tweaking. It’s an interesting setup, looking very curvy and very rigid, yet deep down in the basement you find a pivot with a Progressive shock

attached to it. Of note to those interested in creative deception is how Lee connected the fender struts to the swingarm, adding to the rigid appearance of the frame. On top of that, he went for even more ride comfort by adding dual mini-shocks under the solo seat. Suspension and wheels on a minimalist bike like this would be crucial to its look and feel. Wimmer drew up slick, 23-inch hoops that almost hide the rim lips, then turned to his friends at Gorby Machine to get them cut. While that was taking place he went to work building a front suspension that can best be described as a streamlined version of an old-fashioned Earles fork if built by a master machinist who really knows his stuff. The 1970-vintage motor needed to be pulled apart and gone through. Sure, Japanese bikes are reliable, but if you are building a show-winner, you want the engine to be up to the task. Wimmer stripped it down to the cases and did a standard 0.10-inch over rebuild. While it was apart he had a chance to clean and refinish everything – with the addition of brass, nickel and copper plating. Intakes are his specialty, so Wimmer adapted a pair of his Velocity Stacks to the round-slide Mikunis and built a set of pipes that tuck off to the right side and have requisite hot-rod styling thanks to

full-coverage heat wrap tape. With the roller established, it was time to fill in the gaps. Starting at the back a D&D Fat Katz fender was massaged to fit the Avon tire just close enough to allow for full expansion at speed, but sit alarmingly close to the rubber. A racy, squarish gas tank would have fit the board-track theme, but Lee went to work with Ron Pough at Vission to create a swooping stretched tank that wraps the frame’s backbone perfectly. With his machinery already warmed up, Lee cut a headlight and taillight that, well, would be perfectly in place on a Navy vessel or a special one-of-a-kind Yama-chopper.

nBeing a lifelong machinist leads to Wimmer going a bit overboard on his bikes. Prior to this Yamaha, the original “Toolmaker’s Toy” was a 120-inch V-twin super-bobber. Semi-retired from the day-to-day of his business, Lee still builds things. Those fender spacers? For him, a much better method of relaxation than going fishing.

bikecraft WINTER 2013

BikeCraft WINTER 2013

Toolmaker’s Toy II TECH SPECS

Name of bike: Owner: Year/Make/Model: Fabrication: Assembly: Build time: Engine: Carbs: Exhaust: Air Cleaner: Transmission: Frame: Forks: Shock: Front wheel: Rear wheel: Front Tire: Rear Tire: Front Brake: Rear Brake: Fuel Tank: Oil Tank: Fenders: Handlebars: Headlight: Taillight: Hand Controls: Handgrips: Foot Controls: Footpegs: Electrical: Painter: Graphics: Polishing: Chrome: Seat: Special thanks:

Toolmakers Toy II Lee Wimmer 1970 Yamaha XS650 Wimmer Wimmer 6 months 650 Yamaha twin (2) Mikuni Wimmer Velocity stacks Stock Wimmer chromoly Wimmer Progressive 23” Wimmer/Gorby Machine

For controls, Wimmer bolted on a set of Todd’s Cycle handlebars with Kustom Tech handgrips and controls – treated to the proper application of nickel and brass plating, of course. Interesting note, the “front” brake lever is actually for the only stopper on the bike, the rear HHI caliper. Footpegs and the shifter came from Lee’s machine shop, as did the speedometer and tachometer mounts. Satisfied with the fit, finish and

design, Lee stripped the bike down to have Rusty Nash apply paint and graphics, and CNC Plating finish up some of the metalwork. At that point, Lee went to town making little extra things that showcase his NASA-like attention to detail. Things like the fender spacer mounts, or the frame endcaps, the wild gas cap, the swingarm mounts, the rear wheel “knock-offs” and… well, you get the idea. When Wimmer finally brought

the bike out to an Easyriders Show, people went crazy over it. Some raved over his detail work, some wondered about putting this much time and money into a Yamaha, but at the end of the weekend, when Wimmer stepped on stage to receive his trophy for Best of Show, everyone understood. When we spoke to Lee about the build, he summed it up this way, “I am a machinist and a bike builder, what else was I supposed to do with a Yamaha engine?”

“Next up for Lee is a Triumph 500, fully custom, of course. ‘Heck, anyone can build a bike from a catalog,’ he says.”

23” Wimmer/Gorby Machine Avon Avon None HHI Ron Pough/Vission none D&D Fat Katz Todd’s Cycle Wimmer Wimmer Kustom Tech, Italy Kustom Tech, Italy Wimmer Wimmer Wimmer Rusty Nash Rusty Nash CNC Plating None (nickel/brass/ copper only) Jeff Kimmel, Hot Tails To John Chadwell, Josh Ladd, Marks Powder Coat

n One thing is for sure, no one is going to show up at a bike night, show or rally with an identical bike to Wimmer’s. It was the first metric machine under 1000cc ever to win Best of Show at an Easyriders event. “I’m just pleased that people seem to appreciate all the work put into it,” he says.

bikecraft WINTER 2013

BikeCraft WINTER 2013

TON UP! THE SHOW Café-racers belly up to the bar in Sturgis

Sturgis Rally. To a café rider, the sports-inclined or even a plain ol’ vintage-bike type, it’s a name with zero resonance. We all know the deal: a quartermillion bagger Harleys plus unrideable-except-atSturgis/Daytona/Laconia customs…not to mention (please, no!) the unasked-for exposed flesh and acres of drunken, boorish behavior. I’ve been there as your emissary, and report back that all of your assumptions are correct. But what’s also true are the Black Hills of South Dakota, a magic landscape, sacred to its original inhabitants, a place of gentle beauty, an infinity of soft green grass and rolling hills, with exceptional motorcycle roads cupped between its swelling rises. he

By Paul d’Orléans

Photos by Michael Lichter

bikecraft WINTER 2013

BikeCraft WINTER 2013

TON UP! Photographer Michael Lichter, a legend in the Harley-centric world of Sturgis and V-twin “lifestyle” books and magazines, has a warehouse-size exhibit hall dedicated to his annual “Motorcycles as Art” exhibit, held at Sturgis for 13 years now. The event was off my radar until I met Michael while riding my Velocette KTT on the Motorcycle Cannonball cross-country rally last September, and we just clicked. Michael asked if I could help source vintage café-racers for his 2013 Sturgis show, to be called “Ton Up! Speed, Style and Café Racer Culture.” I was immediately onboard, and suggested we formally team up, as my clip-on and rearset credentials go way back, having founded the Roadholders Café Racer Club in San Francisco in 1987, with my ass glued to a Velocette Thruxton ever since. I asked Michael his reasoning for bringing a bunch of non-American canyon-carvers to the mighty Bagger Bacchanal. “I’ve been watching the explosion of interest in caféracers over the past few years on the Internet and TV, and I see parallels with the Harley custom world – the personal expression, the quality of the work – and it seemed a good, if controversial, subject for this year’s show,” he replied. nBikeCraft was well represented at Ton Up! by Mr. Editor Edwards’ Triumph Trackmaster special, here sharing a plinth with the Garage Company’s Rickman Bonneville. A total of 35 bikes made up the show, along with café-themed photographs, artwork and memorabilia, held in the exhibit hall at the Buffalo Chip Campground.

bikecraft WINTER 2013

BikeCraft WINTER 2013

TON UP!

The absolute mushrooming of interest in café-racers these past five years has overlapped with the “best” of the Harley custom world (sorry, my bias), and plenty of builders known for choppers and bobbers are now making performanceoriented motorcycles that can be ridden around corners. In fact, when word leaked of the café theme for Michael’s 2013 exhibit, we found ourselves turning away well-known shops who were

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eager – sometimes even desperate – to be included in Ton Up! It was overwhelming, actually, how many shops proposed building machines just for Sturgis. I had underestimated the importance of Lichter’s show to the builders themselves. In the end, seven all-new bikes were built for Ton Up!, ranging from Sportster to Triumph to Victory to RD Yamaha, with stock or home-built chassis, from visually fairly standard to completely radical and

unique, from the factory-slickness of Zach Ness’ Victory to the handhammered and sticker-covered RD350 scratcher from the aptly nicknamed “Brewdude.” I collared my vintage pals for prime examples of 1960s-70s caféracers, from Herb Harris’ immaculate ’62 BSA DBD34 Clubman Gold Star and Mark Mederski’s originalpaint ’70 Velocette Thruxton, to a

totally killer all-black Godet-EgliVincent Black Shadow, loaned by Mars Webster. The 13 period café bikes laid the exhibit’s groundwork, starting point for a show covering 50 years’ continuous history of the genre, which to my mind did not begin or end during the Ace Café era, but is an impulse as old as motorcycling – the look of a Racer on the Road. As our touchstone machine, we included Mederski’s original-paint 1962 Norton 30M Manx, the last year of the company’s Bracebridge St. production for this seminal racer. The Manx was, of course, hugely successful on the track, but was equally magnificent for the perfection of its style, which is emulated on newly built café-racers today, whether the bike underneath is British, American, German or Japanese. The continued evolution of the clipon brigade included a pair of divergent Ducati roundcase 750s – the Fuller Hot Rods Duc being a

n (Above) A custom-painted helmet display was part of the show, including one with an above-average sense of whimsy. (Left) Dustin Kott’s Honda CB350 shows how far builders are taking 1970s Japanese iron, while Shinya Kimura concentrates on rarer models like roundcase Ducati 750s (below), this one built for Hollywood bike nut Brad Pitt.

BikeCraft WINTER 2013

TON UP!

nWhat started as a lifestyle choice by leather-clad kids in late-1950s England exploded in the U.S. by the 1970s, so much so that staid old Harley-Davidson, of all companies, had a bonafide caféracer in the lineup. Only 3000 XLCRs were build in two years of production – this is the original from designer Willie G. Davidson’s personal collection.

pared-down and slick traditionalist, and Shinya Kimura’s “Flash” representing the far end of the artistic expression spectrum. Another pair of machines, separated by four decades, showed the enduring strength of café-racer style: Willie G. Davidson pulled from his personal garage the serial no. 001 Harley XLCR, a landmark 1977 machine, a masterpiece from the legendary former head of styling at HD. In some kind of first,

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Willie G’s replacement at Harley, Ray Drea, on hearing his former boss would be bringing the #1 XLCR, immediately started building his own all-Harley café machine, based on an XR1000 engine. The resulting “XR Café” is a drop-dead gorgeous Milwaukee marvel, with completely uprated suspension, brakes, carbonfiber wheels and hand-made aluminum bodywork which closely echoes the XLCR lines. A performance-oriented street racer that inherited the

tough-guy good looks of its spiritual father, but kicks butt all over Dad’s spec sheet. It’s so good, I asked to buy it – please reconsider, Ray. The response to Ton Up! by Sturgis regulars, both industry pros and tipsy campers, was universally WOW!!! Even though I placed every one of the 35 bikes on its plinth, and every one of 200 pieces of art on the walls from 12 photographers and painters, my reaction was exactly the same. Remarkably, I can’t recall a museum-quality exhibit of café-racers anywhere on the planet. Seeing Ton Up! set up, lit and filled with nearly 1300 people on opening day, I had to wonder why not. Not a negative peep was

heard about the show’s content and non-Harley focus, and dudes covered with wrinkled, sun-faded tattoos and Rip Van Winkle beards were as fascinated by the Doc’s Chops Yamaha Virago (!) as by the super-tough Brawny Built Sportster. Many times I overheard, “This show could travel anywhere,” and while moving the whole shebang is prohibitively expensive, luckily Motorbooks is making a smaller, travel-ready version in hardback. Ton Up! the book should be available early next year. Paul d’Orléans is the greybeard of moto-blogging, publishing TheVintagent.com for seven years now. BikeCraft WINTER 2013

TON UP! THE BIKES

A sampling of stars from the show take a turn in front of Michael Lichter’s camera 1966 Dunstall Dominator, owner Gordon McCall

Paul Dunstall was among the first private manufacturers to cater to speed-crazed kids wanting race parts for their road bikes in England. A former scooter geek, he successfully road raced a series of rapid Nortons, and by 1961 was advertising a mail-order catalog selling Gold Star-pattern mufflers and Manx-lookalike fiberglass or alloy gas tanks. Starting in 1966, he stepped up, offered complete Dunstall Dominators like this Norton Atlas-based café. A year later, a Dunstall Norton 750 was the fastest road-legal motorcycle you could buy in England, topping 130 mph. Hondas, Suzukis and Kawasakis were to follow, but café-racing’s original millionaire got his start right here.

“Concept 90” BMW by Roland SandsDesign

“Ed Norton” by Boyle Custom Moto

The Norton Commando won England’s “Bike of the Year” five straight years from 1967 on – it was smooth and fast, with excellent handling. Surprisingly, Norton didn’t offer a café-racer version until the John Player Replica in ‘74, which was overdone and tarted up, and few were sold. Instead owners modified their own Commandos as they saw fit. That’s the spirit Boyle Custom Moto tied into when they cleaned up and lightened a Norton chassis, added spectacular alloy bodywork and zoomy pipes, but kept the early Norton drum brakes. The result is a bike that could have been built in the Swingin’ Sixties...but they were never as good as this one.

“XR Café” Harley by Ray Drea

Ray Drea is the new chief of styling at Harley-Davidson, but still enjoys building custom bikes for himself. This clean XR1000 café-racer is not intended for commercial production, but don’t we all wish it was? Drea has updated the 1970s XLCR look with performance in mind, keeping the classic silhouette, but adding a tuned engine with modern suspension and brakes. The XR Cafe is an homage to former boss Willie G’s flawed masterpiece, a bike that was of its time and ahead of its time – all at the same time.

bikecraft WINTER 2013

BMW built their first café-racer back in 1973, the legendary smokepaint, bikini-fairing R90S. For its 40th anniversary, Munich handed brat builder/former AMA road racing champ Roland Sands a new 900cc prototype. He built beautiful bodywork of hand-formed aluminum and carbon-fiber, then fired up the CNC machine to create wheels, cylinder covers, fork clamps, etc., before laying on a coat of the familiar Daytona Orange as seen on original R90s. Roland has been seen in Italy and France doing smoky burnouts and street racing on the Concept 90...as any real café-racer would.

“Tenacious Ton” Honda by Carpy’s Café Racers

The Honda CB750 wasn’t the first four-cylinder bike, but it was the most-produced from 1969 onwards. The engine was fast and bulletproof, and the frame a decent full-loop design, but the stock suspension was crap, leading to less than café-rated handling. Steve “Carpy” Carpenter, a transplanted Brit doing business in SoCal, gave this first-year ’69 KO (purists, avert thine eyes) a British look with 5-gallon Manx-type tank and racing seat, then added topflight Arces Italian racing forks, plus a Kawasaki swingarm to sort out highspeed weaves. Now that it handles, the pumped-up 85-hp motor can be put to good use! –Paul d’Orléans BikeCraft WINTER 2013

street

Indianapolis, Indiana – Not to lay a big guilt trip on ya, but compared to Cliff Meyer you’re probably going to come off as a bit of a slacker. By day he jumps into medivac helicopters, flight nurse on a pediatric critical care team, saving kids’ lives in the greater Indianapolis area. Afterhours and on weekends Cliff builds tasty pieces like this café Honda 550. See? Beat that. He calls his shop Meyerbuilt Metalworks, a grand name for a modest venue. “Right now I’m operating out of one side of my two-car garage,” says the 33-yearold. “My dream is to get to a point where I can have a small shop in town. My passion for fabrication and motorcycles is almost insatiable!” That much is made clear by this sanitary 1974 CB550, built for a lieutenant in the U.S. Coast Guard. Work began by lopping off the whole rear subframe, replaced by a polished aluminum structure that also incorporates frenched-in taillights. The stock swingarm was braced and fashioned into a monoshocker using a Honda CBR600RR damper. More sportbike stuff up front in the form of a Suzuki GSX-R inverted fork running Tokico quad-piston brake calipers and Hayabusa rotors. Meyer went retro with the wheels, spoked jobs from a Harley-Davidson, 19-inch front, 18 out back. While the chassis was being fettled, good friend Rob Leman

BRICKYARD BUILT Intensive care for a café Honda CB550

bikecraft WINTER 2013

PHOTOS BY KYLE STEVENSON

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tackled the engine rebuild, using parts from vintage Honda café experts Dime City Cycles. Cone Engineering supplied their stainless-steel mufflers and an assortment of tubing that Meyer crafted into a tidy 4-into-2 setup. “It sounds as good as it looks,” he says, “kinda like an older IndyCar when you rev it up.” The gas tank, flyscreen fairing and tailsection were all custom done in aluminum by Meyer. “We wanted a hint at aircraft heritage, so I added some rivet work to the panels,” he says. “Originally a polished finish was on order, but I just happened to experiment with some ScotchBrite pads, and the finish you see was born, kind of a satin brushed finish.” Suitably scuffed, the tins were treated to clearcoat, then entrusted to Freelance Graphics for application of the oversized Honda wing logo’s. Located a few miles south of the Speedway, the company does graphics packages for IndyCar and drag race teams – access to such motorsports-savvy operations is one of the benefits of living in this speed-crazed part of the Midwest. To that list, add a little one-bay bike shop run by this talented, hard-working pediatric ICU nurse… –David Edwards BikeCraft WINTER 2013

YAMA-BOBBER

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XSive bargain at auction…sold!

DEL MAR, CALIFORNIA – Barhopper bobbers aren’t exactly Bob Stark’s thing, but the man knows a bargain when he sees one. With more than enough motorcycles in the shed already, he was just spectating at the recent MidAmerica classic-bike auction held in conjunction with the Del Mar Concours, but he had a bidder’s paddle at the ready just in case. Stark knows that whether it’s

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motorcycles or modern art, there’s also one or two items at any auction that fall between the cracks, a little out of place, no real threat of igniting a bidding war. So it was when this 1980 Yamaha XS650 custom came across the block amid the Indian Chiefs and BSA Gold Stars and Triumph Bonnevilles. The auction catalog wasn’t exactly thick with useful information – recent build out of

Arizona, good runner, real crowd pleaser, etc. – but Bob could see that it was well put together machine. The stock main frame had been turned into a rigid but kept its original VIN number, so the California Highway Patrol would have no issues. Nor was it ridiculously stretched or goosenecked, so it would be a decent around-town ride. Disc brakes at both ends, too, and Honda tele-forks with a decent

PHOTOS BY DAVID EDWARDS

amount of travel, upping the XS’s roadability even further. Stark liked the look of the matching 1970s Honda Com-Star wheels, the asymmetrical sissybar with running light was a nice touch, and treatment of the Harley aftermarket gas tank and rear fender really stood out. Both had been left in the bare metal, swirl polished then clearcoated, with opaque black accent stripes

that let the polishing pattern shine through. Sprinkled about the chassis were various items from TC Bros, the Ohio shop that specializes in parts for custom Sportsters, CB750s and XS650s. The 650 twin had been left stock internally, but benefitted from an HEI electronic ignition, 2-into-1 intake manifold with honking big Mikuni hung off to the side and shotgun-style

up-pipes wrapped in heat tape. In sum, the bike hung together stylistically, showed good build quality and looked like a fun ride. So when the bidding stalled at a measly $2000, Bob had to get in on the action. The underbidder made another halfhearted attempt but when the hammer fell Stark was proud owner of a new Yama-bobber for all of $3000. Drinks on him… –David Edwards BikeCraft WINTER 2013

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BORN THAT WAY

Nuthin’ cooler than a Swingin’ Sixties Triumph 650 Costa Mesa, California – Old Triumphs were born cool. All the now-dead hep cats rode a Trumpet…Brando, Dean, McQueen – even Dylan tried to join the club when he crashed his but managed to survive the prang. Ordinary citizens fell in love with Triumph motorcycles, too, throughout the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s, first as 500s, then 650s and 750s. Almost every single one, it seemed, was customized to one extent or another. On the far end there were stretched and spindly choppers, sometimes so exaggerated as to be all but unrideable. More often, though, Triumphs received mild styling touches aimed at individual personalization, mods that accented the riding experience. That’s the case with this tidy 1968 Triumph, a single-carb

bikecraft WINTER 2013

650 that looks like it was ridden straight from a Woodstock-era bike rally. Builder Mike Davis, blogmeister of the Born Loser site and one of the founders of the Born Free bike shows (see Back in the Day, this issue), was inspired by the company’s exploits in flattrack racing, so set out to create a period street-tracker, nothing too wild. An easy jettison was the stock front fender. A ribbed Avon Speedmaster tire was spooned onto the shouldered alloy rim, itself laced to a later air-scooped twin-leading-shoe front brake, considered by many to be Triumph’s best-ever drum stopper. Out back another alloy rim, this time with a Dunlop Gold Seal K70 fitted. There’s more flat-track flavor in the leather-covered sprung solo saddle and rear fender pad. These are genuine period pieces

from Bates, and have themselves become ultra-collectible in recent years. Other items from the Bates catalog include the 5½-inch chromed headlight and stylish alloy taillight, again both highly desirable collector pieces today. More period touches include the finned points cover and finned valve-inspection caps. The stock gas tank is painted with Triumph’s trademark scallops (invented not in Merry Olde but by Detroit dealer/land-speed wheeler Bob Leppan), here in a strikingly non-standard white and blue, the latter color carried through to a stripe on the rear fender. Shorty megaphone mufflers add visual and aural flair. Mike has since sold the Triumph, so somebody else somewhere now has the coolest Triumph on the block. –David Edwards

PHOTO BY DAVID EDWARDS

BikeCraft WINTER 2013

SUPER SONIC Dallas, Texas – Give Jay Moore some credit, he was into street-trackers before most of us even knew there was such a thing. His love of AMA racing and ability to create custom streetbikes has resulted in a long series of road-going dirt-trackers, but this Triumph 500 may be the most special. For one thing, it’s got history on its side. The frame is a rare Sonicweld from 1967-68, last of the competition rigids, easily recognizable by its bolton “duckhead” rear-axle plates. It’s an oil-in-frame design, geometry worked out by the great Neil Keen, ol’ national no. 10, who knew a thing or two about handling. During one unbelievable stretch in 1961, Keen flogged his BSA Gold Star to 16 final event victories at the weekly Ascot Park half-mile, including 11 wins in a row! He was also in charge of materials acquisition for the new frame company, though we’re not exactly talking high finance here. “I sold my trail bike and a .38

Art meets Ascot: Triumph 500 frame job

pistol to buy enough tubing to get started,” he told the AMA upon his induction to their Hall of Fame. Sharing fabrication duties at Sonicweld were Ray Hensley and Ken Watkins, though the partnership didn’t last long. Disagreements led to a parting of ways, Hensley famously going on to form Trackmaster frames, Watkins doing business as Redline. Recordskeeping not being a high priority, it’s unclear how many Sonicwelds were made during the company’s short twoyear lifespan, but fair to say that Moore’s pristine example is one of the rare undamaged survivors. Also from the era are Akront shouldered alloy rims, 35mm Ceriani forks and Bates saddle with fender pad, both in red/black tuck-nroll leather, a gift from a friend that inspired the bike’s paint job and smattering of matching anodized pieces – all set off, of course, by the nickel-plated Sonicweld. –David Edwards

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PHOTOS BY DAVID EDWARDS

BikeCraft WINTER 2013

Back in the Day

BORN FREE 5 PHOTO OP The Legendary Vincent Dragbike in the Parking Lot By David Edwards

bikecraft WINTER 2013

ll you need to know about

the Born Free show is contained in the photo below. I’d ridden to the event on my Mule street-tracker, parked on the grass amongst the bobbers and baggers and café-racers and choppers – and, swear to God, damn near tripped over this thing! For those not fully up to snuff on your milestones of drag racing history, allow me. This is the famous “Barn Job” Vincent, the first motorcycle to bust through the 140-mph barrier in the quarter-mile. Running on an explosive witch’s brew of nitromethane, benzol and methanol, it also cracked 150, then 160 mph, and was the first bike to break into the 10’s on a dragstrip. For five years in the 1960s, nothing on two wheels was quicker or faster. It all started innocently enough a decade earlier when rider Clem Johnson took his stock Vincent streetbike to the drags for an afternoon of gear-jammin’, its only modification removal of the glass headlight per track safety rules. Hooked on speed, the talented home-machinist tweaked on the bike for the next 25 years, so much so that not much of Ol’ Blighty was left in the Vinnie, even in 1964

when the editors of Hot Rod magazine dropped by for a visit. “To call that same motorcycle a Vincent today is merely a courtesy to the manufacturer – so radical is the metamorphosis that leaves only an engine shell to hint of its heritage,” they wrote. The car guys marveled at the effort that went into hopping up the British V-twin (when SoCal cam shops wanted nothing to do with the Vincent’s oddball valvetrain, Johnson built his own cam-grinding machine, a mere eight-month project). And they really dug the homebrewed frame, crafted from 6061 thin-wall aluminum in all its heat-treated, shotpeened glory, but seemed overly concerned about the lack of seating accommodations, just a slab of thin, hard aluminum. “How sore can you get in 10 seconds?” countered Clem. Today the Barn Job is in the good care of John Stein, advertising copywriter by trade, drag fan by avocation, who has written an excellent book on the history of motorcycle drag racing in America (see the ad in this issue, or go to www.gearheadpublishing.com). One of the most famous bikes in the world usually resides in Stein’s living room – except on the rare occasion when it is brought out to shows like Born Free. Actually, check that: There really aren’t any other shows like Born Free (www.bornfreeshow.com). In just five years, organizers Mike Davis and Grant Peterson have grown the event from a biker block party for a few hundred people to a bonafide motorcycle happening that this year saw 20,000-plus people in attendance. It’s much more than a mere show, even though trophies are given out. If you’re into cool bikes and good times, Born Free is a can’t-miss. Next year’s event will be two-day affair, June 28-29, in the wilds of Orange County, California. Bring a camera, you never know what you might run into in the parking lot…

PHOTO BY DAVID EDWARDS

BikeCraft WINTER 2013